BT street furniture - what is reasonable/legal
Discussion
DarylB90 said:
Loose_Cannon said:
There are odd locations on our housing estate that keep growing enormous BT boxes and apparatus. What used to be fairly unobtrusive green suitcases can now in some instances be huge and present a reasonable hazard or obstruction. There have been a couple at junctions which have blocked sightlines, and here's this monstrosity where they actually planted a telecom mast as well.
'm sure the Roads and Streetworks act has always allowed for utilities to have street furniture and utility boxes in the highway but it's getting beyond a joke. Just look at how narrow the path is now (on the way to a school/shops as well). As a side issue I reckon in this instance it also encourages landlords to ignore the overgrown boundaries beyond it, they have got a perfect excuse if you challenge them that they are narrowing the footway.
So what constitutes legal/resonable for these things? Is a 25% reduction in pedestrian width acceptable?
I wish this was all i had to worry about in life.'m sure the Roads and Streetworks act has always allowed for utilities to have street furniture and utility boxes in the highway but it's getting beyond a joke. Just look at how narrow the path is now (on the way to a school/shops as well). As a side issue I reckon in this instance it also encourages landlords to ignore the overgrown boundaries beyond it, they have got a perfect excuse if you challenge them that they are narrowing the footway.
So what constitutes legal/resonable for these things? Is a 25% reduction in pedestrian width acceptable?
I can't really see a problem to be honest, bear in mind that those boxes probably supply the very internet connection that you are reading this thread on right now, and the mast probably provides the mobile phone coverage that you use every single day.
We often take connectivity for granted and curse when it stops but they have to put the hardware somewhere surely?
To be fair it's hardly an AONB up that street is it?
We often take connectivity for granted and curse when it stops but they have to put the hardware somewhere surely?
To be fair it's hardly an AONB up that street is it?
Loose_Cannon said:
Why do you care to post here twice?
In fact why is anyone adding to this if they think its trivial? Of course its bleeding trivial. Over on other forums right now there are threads running about headlamp masks for the continent, indicator bulbs for a Ginetta and buying a £50 4 cylinder Vauxhall Omega. Feel free to jog on there telling them their little bits of thread and a thousand like them are trivial too.
Its a casual query to anyone familiar with the RASWA by an occasional visitor and even less occasional poster. If you spend the day waiting for a bell to ping every time a thread pops up so you can chime in and make people look like a t
t thats great and well done you.
If you feel like I've made you look like a tIn fact why is anyone adding to this if they think its trivial? Of course its bleeding trivial. Over on other forums right now there are threads running about headlamp masks for the continent, indicator bulbs for a Ginetta and buying a £50 4 cylinder Vauxhall Omega. Feel free to jog on there telling them their little bits of thread and a thousand like them are trivial too.
Its a casual query to anyone familiar with the RASWA by an occasional visitor and even less occasional poster. If you spend the day waiting for a bell to ping every time a thread pops up so you can chime in and make people look like a t
t thats great and well done you.t by posting twice, I'm afraid that's all on you. I was genuinely bemused as to how on earth anyone can be so bothered by the installation you pictured as to spend the time to photograph it and write a post asking for information about its legality. Hence the question... "why do you care"?Loose_Cannon said:
Well the little old lady with the tartan shoping trolley in the distance had to wait for a time while a gaggle of dog walkers went past. Surely it's not unreasonable that pedestrians can pass either way on a pavement without being made to wait or walk in the gutter?
Regardless of the encroachment of those boxes that just does not hold as an argument, you can get shopping streets with footpaths four or more times that width and get a family with double buggy push chairs and a couple of self mobile kids that all insist on walking next to each other and filling most of the width. If it is not some kind of super pedestrian highway used by high numbers of pedestrians then it just needs to be wide enough so you can walk along it without being clipped by a car, bus or lorry mirror*, driveways and grass areas can be used as passing places.
* This really hurts btw.
I project managedworks for BT and BT Openreach for about 6 and half years. (In fact I personally visited over 3000 of their telephone exchanges when I was a junior PM so know the UK by them... much to my wife's displeasure when I mention this when we go somewhere). As part of this we installed a lot of the high speed fibre broadband spines throughout the UK and also street furniture.
Each of these cabinets will (should) have had the appropriate planning submitted to the Local Authority and approved. Back in the day this would have been the LA Inspector wandering around the locations with a nice breakfast/lunch to review the sites with the contractors Coordinator or Site Agent. Nowadays that may have changed given shortages in staff.
There are standards, such as minimum pavement widths etc, that have to be abided by, however the (sometimes sub, sub, sub) contractors doing these types of works can be small firms with little in the way of quality control. The rates are also extremely tight and all priced on a schedule, so there is little incentive to hang around or raise issues or changes if existing services prevent the cabs being installed exactly where they are supposed to be.
There used to be quality control from a BT persepective, but again staff cuts may have put paid to that these days.
Realise this doesn't help your particular gripe here, OP - but hopefully it shines a light on the fact that there is some thought in the locations....
Each of these cabinets will (should) have had the appropriate planning submitted to the Local Authority and approved. Back in the day this would have been the LA Inspector wandering around the locations with a nice breakfast/lunch to review the sites with the contractors Coordinator or Site Agent. Nowadays that may have changed given shortages in staff.
There are standards, such as minimum pavement widths etc, that have to be abided by, however the (sometimes sub, sub, sub) contractors doing these types of works can be small firms with little in the way of quality control. The rates are also extremely tight and all priced on a schedule, so there is little incentive to hang around or raise issues or changes if existing services prevent the cabs being installed exactly where they are supposed to be.
There used to be quality control from a BT persepective, but again staff cuts may have put paid to that these days.
Realise this doesn't help your particular gripe here, OP - but hopefully it shines a light on the fact that there is some thought in the locations....
Manners2001 said:
I project managedworks for BT and BT Openreach for about 6 and half years. (In fact I personally visited over 3000 of their telephone exchanges when I was a junior PM so know the UK by them... much to my wife's displeasure when I mention this when we go somewhere). As part of this we installed a lot of the high speed fibre broadband spines throughout the UK and also street furniture.
Each of these cabinets will (should) have had the appropriate planning submitted to the Local Authority and approved. Back in the day this would have been the LA Inspector wandering around the locations with a nice breakfast/lunch to review the sites with the contractors Coordinator or Site Agent. Nowadays that may have changed given shortages in staff.
There are standards, such as minimum pavement widths etc, that have to be abided by, however the (sometimes sub, sub, sub) contractors doing these types of works can be small firms with little in the way of quality control. The rates are also extremely tight and all priced on a schedule, so there is little incentive to hang around or raise issues or changes if existing services prevent the cabs being installed exactly where they are supposed to be.
There used to be quality control from a BT persepective, but again staff cuts may have put paid to that these days.
Realise this doesn't help your particular gripe here, OP - but hopefully it shines a light on the fact that there is some thought in the locations....
Local councillors have rejected BT application three times for cabinet installation for fast internet. f**king squirrels. Each of these cabinets will (should) have had the appropriate planning submitted to the Local Authority and approved. Back in the day this would have been the LA Inspector wandering around the locations with a nice breakfast/lunch to review the sites with the contractors Coordinator or Site Agent. Nowadays that may have changed given shortages in staff.
There are standards, such as minimum pavement widths etc, that have to be abided by, however the (sometimes sub, sub, sub) contractors doing these types of works can be small firms with little in the way of quality control. The rates are also extremely tight and all priced on a schedule, so there is little incentive to hang around or raise issues or changes if existing services prevent the cabs being installed exactly where they are supposed to be.
There used to be quality control from a BT persepective, but again staff cuts may have put paid to that these days.
Realise this doesn't help your particular gripe here, OP - but hopefully it shines a light on the fact that there is some thought in the locations....
Loose_Cannon said:
There are odd locations on our housing estate that keep growing enormous BT boxes and apparatus. What used to be fairly unobtrusive green suitcases can now in some instances be huge and present a reasonable hazard or obstruction. There have been a couple at junctions which have blocked sightlines, and here's this monstrosity where they actually planted a telecom mast as well.
'm sure the Roads and Streetworks act has always allowed for utilities to have street furniture and utility boxes in the highway but it's getting beyond a joke. Just look at how narrow the path is now (on the way to a school/shops as well). As a side issue I reckon in this instance it also encourages landlords to ignore the overgrown boundaries beyond it, they have got a perfect excuse if you challenge them that they are narrowing the footway.
So what constitutes legal/reasonable for these things? Is a 25% reduction in pedestrian width acceptable?
As been mentioned by others, a certain amount of room has to be left for pedestrians between the apparatus and the start of the curbstone - that is set in law, so as long as its within that measurement, no issues. 'm sure the Roads and Streetworks act has always allowed for utilities to have street furniture and utility boxes in the highway but it's getting beyond a joke. Just look at how narrow the path is now (on the way to a school/shops as well). As a side issue I reckon in this instance it also encourages landlords to ignore the overgrown boundaries beyond it, they have got a perfect excuse if you challenge them that they are narrowing the footway.
So what constitutes legal/reasonable for these things? Is a 25% reduction in pedestrian width acceptable?
The picture you show is of an O2 site that has not yet been upgraded to 4G, or at least no obvious signs from the picture. Just wait till it gets the 4G treatment and a new Ericsson RBS6000 or Huawei 3900AL gets landed there
The cell planners, as long as they stick to the guidelines can put these almost anywhere that they want and were in the early part of this decade a very quick and cheap way of increasing mobile coverage for them.
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