Protest in Hedon over plans to erect broadband poles in town

Hundreds of people have held a protest against the installation of telegraph poles in residential streets for new broadband services.

Protesters gathered outside Hedon Town Hall, where a meeting took place on Thursday between councillors and telecom company MS3 Networks.

Objectors accused the firm of changing its initial plan to bury the cables underground in the East Yorkshire town.

MS3 chief executive Guy Miller said the company was listening to concerns.

But local councillor Steve Gallant told the BBC the company's communication with residents had been "absolutely terrible".

"When they presented this to the council last year, they said they were going to put all the cables underground," he said.

"So, they have reneged on that, I presume, just because it is cheaper for them to stick up poles.

"Large parts of Hedon were only built 20 to 25 years ago and all the existing services are underground. There are no telegraph poles."

Mr Gallant said the meeting was told the firm planned to erect 500 poles across the town.

Last week, residents in a street in Hessle, East Yorkshire, halted the installation of the poles claiming the firm did not have the necessary permission to erect them for overhead cables.

MS3 said it was legally permitted to install infrastructure, but had agreed to postpone that work for 28 days.

Mr Miller conceded that the company "could have communicated better" with people in Hedon.

"We are listening to their concerns and we will take it from here and work out how we can collaborate with residents better," he said.

He acknowledged the company did initially tell the council last year "that our plans at the time were to do underground wherever possible".

He added: "Now we have financially reviewed the area, we have made a decision that telegraph poles are more suitable to deploy.

"If we didn't put in telegraph poles then, quite simply, we wouldn't be providing competitive broadband. There isn't an option to do underground."

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