UK government grumbles about ‘unnecessary pole deployment’

The open letter begins with a throat clearing about how the government wants to drive economic growth that it sees fast and reliable broadband as crucial to this, before moving onto apparent public concerns surrounding the deployment of telegraph poles.

“Many people are calling for the Government to remove permitted development rights for poles,” says Byant in the letter. “I do not, at this stage, believe that this is the right move. I want to ensure that my Department does everything it can to support fast-paced rollout of digital infrastructure across the UK to meet the Government’s objectives.

“However, at the same time, we must look to address the concerns that people across this country have expressed and recognise that unnecessary pole deployment is immensely frustrating for them. I am grateful for the industry coming together to reform the Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice, and the work you have already undertaken to drive this work forward.”

Bryant adds that revising the rules around pole deployment should all be done in cooperation with local planning authorities, highway authorities and other interested parties, and that he hopes a revised Code of Practice can set out examples of considerations that should be taken into account before new poles are deployed, which can be put into action in the autumn.

A roundtable is scheduled on 12 September to discuss this, and Bryant concludes: “At that roundtable I would also appreciate your commitment that you will do everything possible to share infrastructure and deploy poles in a considerate way.”

“Should the revised Code of Practice fail to address those public concerns and lead to far greater infrastructure sharing and fewer unnecessary pole deployments; I will not hesitate to consider changing existing regulations or wider legislative options to ensure that communities’ concerns are taken into account when deploying infrastructure.”

How unnecessary these poles actually are may be in the eye of the beholder of course – presumably no corporate entity is spending its own money on setting up infrastructure deployments just for the love of the game. That said, if there is scope to collaborate more and gain some efficiencies in a way that doesn’t slow down buildouts, then that seems a reasonable enough thing encourage.