Oops – Openreach UK Put Full Fibre Pole Through Village Sewer

Residents in the rural Pembrokeshire (Wales) village of Nolton Haven were last week left with a smelly problem after a team of Openreach (BT) engineers, which have been busy deploying Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband in the area, managed to install one of their telegraph poles through a mains sewer.

Sometimes even the best civil engineers make a stinky mistake, although it’s rarely quite as literal as this one. Nolton Haven itself is a typically picturesque hamlet that sits along the coast of St Bride’s Bay and as such it’s rather lucky to be getting a “full fibre” broadband ISP network. We assume this is part of BT’s latest contract with the Welsh Government (here and here).

However the deployment has not been without its problems. For example, locals have complained that the newly installed poles and fibre are “unsightly against the cliffs and beach.” The work has also damaged some existing copper lines, which briefly left two elderly people without the ability to contact anybody (no mobile signal where they live).

The latest mishap, which occurred last week, is that Openreach seemingly managed to install one of their new poles directly through the mains sewer. Residents who tried to complain about this then found it difficult to contact the operator’s Project Manager, who they say always seemed to be unavailable.

Comment from Local Resident to ISPreview.co.uk:

“During their work they have installed 6 new poles without planning permission from the national park. They have spanned a large amount of new fibre after spanning fibre 2 years prior, but running out of time to connect it (they apparently can’t use it as it has the wrong date on it!).

They have then installed one of the new poles straight through the mains sewer pipe, which is now causing raw sewerage to contaminate the water way and sea.”

The good news is that the engineers came around last Friday to fix the damage (as pictured below).

An Openreach Spokesperson said:

“We’re in the process of installing, new full fibre broadband in Nolton Haven, which will provide around 100 homes in this remote village with not only some of the fastest speeds in the UK, but also a more reliable future-proof service that will serve their needs for decades to come.

Sometimes – as is the case here – the only viable option to deliver full fibre is to install new equipment. Our engineers installed several new poles, having followed the correct planning process and gained council permission. As the poles cross park land we consulted with Natural Resources Wales to ensure they’re placed as sensitively as possible.

We do our best to carry out work with great care but on this rare occasion the installation of one of our new poles did cause a small crack to a nearby sewer pipe and disrupted service to two local phone lines. Both issues were resolved on the day, with the phone lines reconnected within an hour. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused.”

In the long run we’d hope that the ability to order a “gigabit-capable” broadband connection in such a small rural location should help to balance against any initial difficulties during the deployment.