Is this open reach box acceptable?

Is this open reach box acceptable?

Author
Discussion

xx99xx

1,892 posts

72 months

Friday 9th November 2018
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Personally, I don't see a problem if I lived there, or if one was put similarly outside my house. If you're worried about potential buyers being put off then they're probably not the sort of buyers you'd want to be dealing with anyway.

Shuvi McTupya

24,460 posts

246 months

Friday 9th November 2018
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guindilias said:
Seems as long as they can still get into the box you can paint it, vinyl wrap it, whatever...
Get something like this smile



m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
xx99xx said:
Personally, I don't see a problem if I lived there, or if one was put similarly outside my house. If you're worried about potential buyers being put off then they're probably not the sort of buyers you'd want to be dealing with anyway.
logically i agree, will it actually effect my life? no. Will it slightly detract from the house? maybe, i was planning an oak porch, maybe with the hedge all the way round it will look good still.

I just hope future buyers are reasonable. Its a large house which has been done to a high standard with a really good sensible layout, south facing, good parking etc. There has to be some trade off. The trade off for us was its on a road, albeit not a busy one. If it was down some country lane over looking mountains i have no doubt it would have cost a lot more than it did. Per sq foot it was cheap and it will be when we sell too.

Lemming Train

5,567 posts

71 months

Friday 9th November 2018
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m3jappa said:


That is seriously close to the junction isn’t it?

Nice that they washed the path down as well, if i left a path in a mess like that then i guarantee the customer would not be happy, that and any passers by would be unlikely to use us because it looks such a mess.

Oh to have a business where i could do what i wanted.

Edited by m3jappa on Friday 9th November 20:34
hehe

To add insult to injury and as a lasting reminder for you, if you look on Google street view the Openreach guy is actually sat in his van and parked right outside your house! laughlaugh

edit: typo

Edited by Lemming Train on Friday 9th November 21:26

m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
Lemming Train said:
hehe

To add adjust to injury and as a lasting reminder for you, if you look on Google street view the Openreach guy is actually sat in his van and parked right outside your house! laughlaugh
Your right he is there, i forgot about that. I mean as well surely having them where they are is a bit silly anyway, as you can see they park either where they are on that image or directly on the corner. It bothers my wife more than me but it is a bit dangerous surely.

Again from my point of view, if ever we have to park in any vaguely dodgy way the amount of shaking heads as people drive past is quite shocking really. And we would never park dangerously.

m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Friday 9th November 2018
quotequote all
I have just been reading the government document which sets out rules for placement of these boxes and it appears that several of the rules have been broken.
some are little, for example the plinth the box sits on should protrude no more than 25mm. They should have name plates on them (none of these 3 do).
The talk of visual impact is evident throughout, after all no one in their right mind would want one outside their front window. Thats the reason we have planning in this country, its so people dont just build all sorts of contraptions where they like blotting the landscape.

It talks about the boxes ideally being placed backing onto a wall or hedge, locally all but 1 i know of backs onto a wall or hedge.

Also talks about lots of other stuff i am a bit unsure on. hopefully the link will work as its a direct download type page

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&a...

guindilias

5,245 posts

119 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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Just do everything - plant knotweed ,poison ivy, big hedge with a maze to get to it - And wrap it with that nice council flower wrap as been displayed above.
Oh, and put "DANGER- ASBESTOS- DO NOT APPROACH" stickers all over it.
If all else fails, lift it out with a crane and put it on the next street over, and claim it has always been there. hehe

Andeh1

7,107 posts

205 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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Sorry to hear it OP, that is stupid & I fully sympathise with feeling gutted & upset over it! frown

That being said, increase & extend the hedge and plant & weed the mud around it to ensure the grass grows back well and you will forget about it.

They are such common sights around estates, future purchasers of the house won't notice nor care, I imagine the view you had there originally wasn't exactly one of natural unspoilt countryside?

Wozy68

5,387 posts

169 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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m3jappa said:
I do sound snowflaky I will admit that hehe it’s just a series of events recently have caused me nothing but trouble. All I do is seem to bend over fking backwards to make sure every single person I interact with is happy, at almost any cost. On the other hand people seem to treat me like some sort of fking idiot, it’s almost like it’s a case of do what you want to him because he won’t do anything. I am mr open check book it appears.
Anyway that’s another story.

But yes half of me is upset half of me will do what I always do and find a solution.
^^^ You and me both buddy.

At least you haven’t had to suffer (after standing for 100 years with uninterrupted riverside views) moving into your dream home and then within 12 months they build houses in front of it, to lose it forever.

I’d have your BT box any day in comparison.


Edited by Wozy68 on Saturday 10th November 07:41

Chris Type R

8,018 posts

248 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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m3jappa said:
That photo does make it look like it's consciously been offset to the side of the gate opening - the view on the approach to the house and front door is certainly compromised and there are seemingly better alternative locations - but it might not be as bad to live with in the future as it appears now.

m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
quotequote all
Its not so much the view itself that's been spoilt, we over look a road with houses on the other side (that said its a very nicely maintained road and actually looks quite nice). Its more a case when pulling up to the house it just looks hideous.

Reading their guidelines and various stuff on their websites they can by all accounts put them anywhere, like the wall at the side of the garden further down. I can only imagine its a laziness based attitude or worse than that they plan on putting more in the gap between the boxes.

I will do what i can to get them to move it but i wont hold out hope. Some shrubs around the boxes and a hedge on ours will hopefully disguise it a bit better. The other side of the road has low (around 60cm) shrubs all along the verge so i will find out what they are and plant them, i can only think openreach either wont care or think its the council and i think the council simply wouldn't notice.

Evanivitch

19,803 posts

121 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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Plant some ivy next to it. Then wish the next poor git that has to open it good luck.

m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
quotequote all
Wozy68 said:
^^^ You and me both buddy.

At least you haven’t had to suffer (after standing for 100 years with uninterrupted riverside views) moving into your dream home and then within 12 months they build houses in front of it, to lose it forever.

I’d have your BT box any day in comparison.


Edited by Wozy68 on Saturday 10th November 07:41
frown one of my biggest fears with buying a house. It has become apparent that any house which has any type of open land around it is at risk of building. I think its disgusting, why cant they be put on the field up the road where no one is effected type scenario iykwim.
We've just done a job for a lovely couple, they have uninterrupted views of rolling hills and forest, it really is beautiful. Now they want to build xxx homes on this field. So the reality is that the existing home owners who would have no doubt paid a premium for this view now lose it to someone else who will also pay a premium frown

Not just with building houses, or boxes or similar but i am genuinely surprised at just how some people simply do not give a flying fk about others.

My only regret in life is i have grown up with morals, i know a few people who would go out and smash all those boxes up or rip them out with a digger, they would keep doing this until they no longer placed them there, they also would insure they wouldn't get caught! me on the other hand, if i even considered it i would be banged up in some hell hole somewhere hehe

Escort3500

11,829 posts

144 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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It is ugly and compounds the impact of the existing boxes, so I’d be pissed off too. However, planting shrubs round it (when it’s not your land) will only result in either (a) the council removing them when they come to cut the grass or (b) BT removing them for “access/maintenance” reasons.

The only recourse you might have is if they listen to your concerns and agree to relocate it ( unlikely) or relocate at your expense (likely to be expensive even if they agree to it).


DonkeyApple

54,923 posts

168 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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Well, the world wouldn’t work if there weren’t people like you. And manners and civility will return to the masses when interest rates do their little catch-up dance at some point. wink

It does load ok as if that box obscures the view for traffic approaching the junction and on a residential road where children are present the council can’t completely ignore this if it were pointed out to them? Afterall, it is probably the precice reason why the earlier boxes were installed away from the corner.

m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
quotequote all
I saw a couple of engineers locally earlier so stopped and spoke to them. They both agreed the position was ridiculous and they would be pissed off if outside their houses.
They did say theres a chance of moving it, it has happened before apparently. They also said we would end up with more boxes there because the initial box doesnt have enough ports and this is a high demand area. That almost sounds like the initial box isn't correct and to fix that they just install more boxes instead of the right one where it should be. No where else locally has all these, and even the ones which are fitted, every single one is fitted in a sensible location and is fairly discreet.

Coming home earlier is gutting, theres now what looks like a graveyard of green boxes outside, its a proper eyesore and surely things like this are the reason we have planning permission, so that people dont just build fking stupid things all over the place making the area look fking stupid.

Lets hope the bloke who contacts me is reasonable.

HairyMaclary

3,649 posts

194 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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m3jappa said:
Is your house on the wonk? My ocd is going mental.

Roof different pitches.
Middle window not centre.
Porch not centre
That soil stack vent.
Cctv cameras pointing all over the shop.

I think you've got bigger things to break your heart wink

Could just be the angles and the house is in fact lovely.



m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
quotequote all
haha looking properly at the picture it does look seriously fked up hehe it must be the camera as the roof pitches definitely aren't like that, the actual porch is central but the windows do look odd, im sure they are even but id have to measure and the soil stack i have to say has never bothered me although now you point it out hehe .......

Heres a picture on google maps where it looks a bit more even hehehttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6396349,0.603330...

you can actually see the openreach van as well. the engineer told me today that they are meant to be 10m from a junction, you can see here they aren't and never are. the only other places to park are directly outside other houses further up or further from the box the other way. im starting to think the whole location is stupid full stop, they could have gone against the wall, the engineer said they need 1m minimum on a footpath with the doors open, well they have that and more.

I was planning an oak porch, see thread here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by m3jappa on Saturday 10th November 19:08

Whatsmyname

944 posts

76 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
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BT may not need planning permission for a lot of stuff? I know the railway can do a lot of stuff without it.

m3jappa

Original Poster:

6,391 posts

217 months

Saturday 10th November 2018
quotequote all
I know i keep going on but i have just checked our cctv. possibly illegally we have a camera on that front gate which just catches the area they have fitted the box on. You can clearly see the bloke setting out the box location. He just walk up, chucks the base down and starts. no measuring nothing, doesnt even look around himself.