Is this open reach box acceptable?

[m3jappa]

I have just got home and am pretty gutted tbh, bt open reach have just fitted a new box outside our house in addition to the other 2 slightly further down.
The first 2 have been there some time and while not ideal they are offset to the house. I knew this when we got the house.
The new box though is directly in front of the house, right outside our gate and for some reason (more boxes maybe) is about 3m away from the other 2.
Why on earth wouldn’t they fit it to the other side of the existing boxes instead of right outside someone’s house

Maybe I am being a bit nimby but I’m gutted, I am fairly certain a box located like that would put off potential buyers in future.
No warning from them and possibly no sense or respect either.

Next to the existing boxes the path area backs onto a brick wall, why on earth wouldn’t they all just be fitted there?

[m3jappa]

[m3jappa]

I spoke to a couple of people earlier, one was bt customer services who were quite helpful, he agreed it was a ridiculous position.

I then spoke to open reach via an online chat (there's no way you are calling these people!) The guy immediately said that there would be planning for this box, he then backed down about it when i said i hadn't seen any notice about it. I then sent him a picture and he came straight back saying it was a very bad location for it and agreed with me.
He said all he can do is forward it all onto that boxes project manager and get him to contact me, he said he hoped it had been located in the wrong position!

Work actually started yesterday, my wife said they were digging it up out there, however we just assumed they were doing a repair to something as they often seem to be doing out there, they were there this morning and i saw them, again i assumed they were doing a repair, i never thought they would be fitting another box a few meters away. They are often out there doing something so i haven't had any reason to believe anything else.

No notice at all of works. I checked the council planning portal and theres nothing at all on there, maybe there is some kind of blanket planning allowing them to fit what they like as the first box which was there must be years and years old.

Does it block line of sight from the junction? maybe? ill have to see in a car, it doesnt really in my van.

And to the pleb saying about how i cant afford a house in the country and i should suck it up, i do understand street furniture will be fitted in various places, theres a lamppost the other side of the property and the other boxes were there when we bought the house, fitting a random box in front of someones house like that is fking stupid.
The lengths i go to to keep my general public customers happy, the bizaree things they sometimes moan about which i do suck up, deal with and keep smiling, i assure you about 80% of people i work for would have a fking baby if they had this outside. i dont mind them being there but seriously it isn't much to ask to fit them to the left and not outside the fking gate.

If it doesnt get moved i will remove the gate and continue the laurel hedge ( i was going to anyway but i was going to keep the gate) and have it maybe 4ft high all round which i think will detract enough.

I may also plant a load of shrubs around the boxes, theres loads on the verges round here so i doubt they would cause an issue.

[m3jappa]

Maybe im taking this to heart but at the moment im pretty upset about this, some googling reveals its not the first time they have put one in a stupid thoughtless location, they even fitted one in front of a war memorial somewhere.

I've got a big mortgage on this house, the equity in it is really all ive got, i have worked extremely hard doing what i do to get here, we are both very house proud and have done a lot of work to the place to improve it and hopefully add some value. To have that box directly out the front like that is just heartbreaking, i feel like someone has literally looked at the house and said oh well who gives a fk its not ours what makes it worse is im the sort of dhead that is considerate to others and just wouldn't do that.

I can just imagine now that when we come to sell it will be comment after comment about the boxes, strangely enough i have a driveway booked in next week for a bloke who was going to buy this house years ago. The reason he didn't was it has 3 manholes in the garden and he thought it would be trouble. Never underestimate how strange people get when buying houses! Our last house sale had some seriously weird comments from people who viewed and didn't want to offer.

Looking at open reaches web site it appears you can pay to have them moved, it doesnt appear to be for asthetc reasons more development stuff but they say they can basically put them where you like (thats how i read it anyway). Maybe ill be paying to move it.

[m3jappa]

I do sound snowflaky I will admit that 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.

[m3jappa]

carreauchompeur said:

https://goo.gl/images/jc7n3T

Trust me I’ve got the right equipment to remove the whole fking lot if I was that way inclined. Like Michael Douglas I’m falling down I feel myself becoming that man

[m3jappa]

Whatsmyname said:

If you're not bothered about losing your internet the box would look prettier surrounded by japanese knotweed.

unfortunately that really would stop me from selling it

[m3jappa]

V8RX7 said:

Having been in the same situation I sympathise.

Here's one I built,

Note the existing postbox and BT box on the one side and then they put that bloody great big one on the front !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4224678,-1.80496...

(If you go down the road on the right you see the house finished)

It is insane, why not just site it nearer the other box, i just dont get it. Actually i do, ive been in the building trade my whole life and as im sure you know people in it and surrounding it literally do not give a flying fk about anything except themselves and what time they are getting to the pub.

[m3jappa]

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

[m3jappa]

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.

[m3jappa]

Lemming Train said:

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!

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]

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...

[m3jappa]

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.

[m3jappa]

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

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

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

[m3jappa]

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.

[m3jappa]

haha looking properly at the picture it does look seriously fked up 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 .......

Heres a picture on google maps where it looks a bit more even https://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

[m3jappa]

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.

[m3jappa]

overunder12g said:

Gutted and Heartbroken? Hope you never get a real life problem.

Yes i am and yes i have had some real life problems in the past thanks, stuff which is clearly worse than a fking massive green box outside a house, but for today thats what im pissed off about.

[m3jappa]

bimsb6 said:

Do you think he decided where to fit the box or fitted it where the plans told him to ?

I know when I follow plans I work from a drawing and measure it out, I certainly don’t just chuck it down and start digging......can potentially cause massive issues that....

[m3jappa]

fatboy b said:

HairyMaclary said:

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

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

I think that cream-coloured siding will put off more buyers than the green box up front

While I agree it looks cream there it’s called cobblestone and is a sort of cobble grey stone colour. Either way that could be changed or painted, the box can’t