Ripley Town Residents Challenge Obstructive BT FTTC Broadband Cabinets

Some 60 residents in the Derbyshire UK town of Ripley have handed a petition to BTOpenreach that calls for one of its new superfast broadband (FTTC) street cabinets, which is placed on a corner at the very end of Leamington Street, to be moved because, they claim, it could cause a potentially fatal car crash.

The corner use to have one of BT’s older cabinets, which was considerably shorter and allowed drivers approaching the junction to see around the turn, while BT’s new one appears to block the view for practically anybody who doesn’t own an off-road (4×4) Chelsea tractor. BT typically does not require planning permission to install street cabinets, except in certain areas.

Resident Mark Pearson said (Ripley and Heanor News):

“It’s dangerous, it’s a real safety risk and it will not be long before someone is seriously injured or killed. You used to be able to see between the telegraph pole and the cabinet – now you just have to pull out and hope for the best.”

Sadly issues like the one above are nothing new and BT, after initially refusing to move the cabinet, has now at least promised to take a “fresh look” at the problem. But a spokesperson for the operator warned, “that’s not to say we are definitely going to move the cabinets“. Indeed moving the cabinet would be costly and tedious.

Thinkbroadband has cleverly managed to locate a picture of the OLD cabinet via this Google Maps link, which shows that the turn was already difficult to navigate even before BT plugged one of its bigger boxes in. Perhaps a better solution than the massive upheaval of having to move the whole cabinet might simply be to install a street mirror, which would allow drivers to see any oncoming traffic as they reach the junction.

As usual it should be remembered that, for most people, being close to a superfast broadband cabinet could bring huge benefits from faster internet access. Any decision thus needs to be tempered against the impact or potential loss of that service.