Everyone wants better, faster, more reliable services, and access to the internet is no exception. But what started as a rumour that BT Openreach were about to bring full fibre to Park Hall and Meir Hay has, over the last few months, turned into a reality of telegraph poles starting to appear.
However, having seen the success of a petition-based campaign in nearby Meir Park, we believe it's not too late to stop it happening in Park Hall and Meir Hay. We can't guarantee telegraph poles will be removed, but we can act to potentially stop any more being added.
Our concerns as your ward councillors are clear - poor engagement, lack of communication and bewilderment at telegraph poles over underground ducting.
From the start, BT Openreach have chosen not to engage with the community - notices have appeared on streetlamps, and whilst you can raise a concern about visual appearance and location, the standard response comes back that they are acting under permitted development and can do this anyway.
The wording of these responses reveals that BT Openreach have not taken the time to learn that at least two other providers have already utilised underground ducting locally, which makes the threatened inconvenience of digging up pavements a very hollow threat in a place that has already experienced this.
Because they are operating under 'permitted development', they do not require planning permission, and any conditions put on the work by the City Council can be ignored. You can read more detail on this by following this link to an excellent House of Commons library briefing on Broadband Companies and Telegraph Poles.
As your local councillors, we've encouraged residents to raise complaints and concerns, but these appear to be going nowhere. Requests for a list of telegraph pole locations, meetings with the local BT manager, or even communication directly with residents has been ignored.
The successful campaign in Meir Park was based purely on 'people power' - residents coming together to say they have no problem with choice, but strongly object to any full-fibre roll out that puts telegraph poles on our streets, obscuring the terrific views that our area is known for.
So today we are launching a petition to say 'No to Telegraph Poles in Park Hall and Meir Hay' for submission to BT Openreach. We only have a small window of time to do this to ensure BT Openreach hear our views at the end of August.
Whilst the petition is being run via the Stoke-on-Trent Conservatives website, the data contained will be deleted on 30th October - you can though sign up for our newsletter to hear more from us about what else we are doing locally!