I was contacted earlier this week by residents in the West Street/Hesleden Road area of Blackhall Colliery concerned that a broadband company was considering the use of poles to install cables - rather than connecting them underground.
There have been similar concerns in other parts of the country, and also in several parts of County Durham recently so I contacted the council to ask what - if anything - could be done to encourage this company to underground their cables rather than ruin the street scene with additional and unwanted poles.
I received the following response, which confirms that the use of poles by telecoms companies is considered ‘permitted development’ meaning they can erect poles pretty much where they choose without having to seek planning consent from the local authority:
A number of poles have and are to be installed in and around Durham by Netomnia who are delivering ultra-fast broadband to the area, the poles will inevitably have cables spanning from them.
Poles are defined as electronic communication apparatus and as such can be installed, kept and maintained on publicly maintainable highway by a person to whom the Telecom Powers is applied, in this particular case this would be Netomnia.
The installation of poles are constituted as permitted development under Schedule 2 Part 16 Class A of The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as amended), and under Schedule 3a of the Communications Act 2003, therefore no planning permission or prior approval from the local planning authority is required prior to their installation.
With poles deemed as permitted development DCC as the highway authority can therefore only facilitate their installation, however DCC are reviewing their locations to ensure that they aren’t blocking visibility at junctions, restricting access to properties, etc. Unfortunately DCC cannot stop a pole from been placed outside of a residents property.
Netomnia are recommended to place a site notice in as close proximity as possible to the proposed apparatus indicating to the nearby residents the intention to install a pole, and the proposed location. No formal consultation or prior notification would be delivered to individual residents.
There have been meetings between Netomnia and residents in other areas and their business decision was made where if the network were already overhead, they would go overhead, where it was underground they would go underground. In areas that they had planned to connect the homes by overhead poles, and the area did not already have poles, they had placed the build on hold until they were able to return with an alternative build method. However, where there were already poles, they would use the existing poles and erect more if it was required to connect the premises in the area.
DCC can only suggest if there are any issues that
residents contact Netomnia directly concerning the pole positioning, https://www.netomnia.com/ or email: buildqueries@netomnia.com
