please empty your brain below
Hurrah for dg!

ap | 17.06.23 - 7:11 a.m. | #

It's the small victories, well pursued.

Frank F | 17.06.23 - 7:22 a.m. | #

Let's have more wins like this.

GingerCat | 17.06.23 - 7:27 a.m. | #

It doesn't alter the fact that BT are allowed to obscure a view of plants, replacing it with advertising blather everyone could cheerfully do without.

Tories are always getting rid of cluttering regulations that save us from danger and inconvenience as 'red tape', but are happy to clutter our real lives to make a few bob selling things.

Brian | 17.06.23 - 7:47 a.m. | #

Even if you disregard the possible difficulties for the three-pushchair brigade, just look how much better the aspect along the High Street is now. Well done all.

Richard | 17.06.23 - 7:49 a.m. | #

The previous phone box also "obscured a view of plants".

diamond geezer | Homepage | 17.06.23 - 7:49 a.m. | #

good work! I recently (well, last year) highlighted to my local planning authority that location applied for a 5G mast was, rather than the clear space the company were confident in, about to be dug up completely for a reconfiguration of the street that had been years in the planning, and would have hence been in the middle of the new cycleway.

This was swiftly resolved, thankfully.

Al__S | 17.06.23 - 7:53 a.m. | #

Hurrah! How satisfying. Nice one.

Kevin | 17.06.23 - 7:54 a.m. | #

I had a previous small planning win when I spotted that the plans for a new supermarket in the grounds of my local hospital didn't have much in the way of cycle parking. My comment spurred them on to adding some stands and a shelter - and when the ones they installed didn't match the plans, sent another email and they installed some sturdier ones.

It was apparently worthwhile, because whenever I visit the supermarket, the bike racks are often full.

Small wins can be very satisfying.

martin | 17.06.23 - 8:04 a.m. | #

I wonder who owned the "unexpected infrastructure beneath the pavement" was. Given that there had been a phone box there before, I think we can guess.

Timbo | 17.06.23 - 8:18 a.m. | #

OMG you should get a MBE for your victory against BT

Brian | 17.06.23 - 8:21 a.m. | #

What a satisfying outcome! Well done to all who had a hand in seeing this through. The cheek of BT trying to retrospectively authorise their mistake / blatant land-grab... am so glad their 'street hub' is now back by the bins, where it belongs.

Jayne | 17.06.23 - 8:55 a.m. | #

Great story. Well done.

ScottishExile | 17.06.23 - 8:59 a.m. | #

Well done, great work.

Mikey C | 17.06.23 - 9:03 a.m. | #

I’m currently having a similar issue with Network Rail who want to install lots of bollards (to protect their asset aka bridge over the railway) in the middle of the main route between the train station and city centre reducing the effective width from 3m to less than 2m.

It’s more of a challenge as the Network Rail argument is safety orientated rather than BT advertising. But still I don’t believe you should disadvantage thousands of people a day in the name of over zealous health and safety.

David | 17.06.23 - 9:10 a.m. | #

Really nice work, this brought a smile to my face this warm summer morning.

bunsen | 17.06.23 - 9:19 a.m. | #

Congratulations.

The depressing thing is the general 'whateverness' of large businesses, who actually authorized the installation in the wrong place, then the application to leave it there, the misleading statement about the usable area of pavement, the cost of installing it and then relocating it.

It'll just get written off as expenses.

Still Anon | 17.06.23 - 9:24 a.m. | #

Well done.

I wonder how often this happens and nobody checks to see whether is was done properly

Jimbo | 17.06.23 - 9:39 a.m. | #

Great story.

"BT claimed they hadn't been able to install the hub in the intended location because of unexpected infrastructure beneath the pavement"

Does this mean the unexpected infrastructure had unexpectedly disappeared when the time came to move the hub to its new location?

Rob | 17.06.23 - 9:44 a.m. | #

Nice one. Power to the people!

Cornish Cockney | 17.06.23 - 9:45 a.m. | #

Hurrah! Very well done, I love it when the little people claim a scalp over large corporations.

Hadders | 17.06.23 - 9:52 a.m. | #

The more important thing here is people actually exercising their rights and power at the right place. Part of the reason that other parts of the world not enjoying the democracy and freedom as the West do is because the people are too lazy to exercise their rights and let power-grabbers take them away until it's too late.

Patrickov | 17.06.23 - 9:52 a.m. | #

Well done dg and friends.

MikeK | 17.06.23 - 10:02 a.m. | #

That's given me a nice warm feeling! Well done.

Tony | 17.06.23 - 10:39 a.m. | #

Well done. Now, what's next, are you sure everything is ok at Bus stop M?

mikeH | 17.06.23 - 11:18 a.m. | #

Well done to all involved (well, dg and readers, not BT).

Peter of London | 17.06.23 - 11:35 a.m. | #

Great result.

Without wishing to get too political, I would remind Brian that BT is a private company. They would not have acted any differently if there were a Labour administration in place.

Petras409 | 17.06.23 - 11:42 a.m. | #

Great, thanks, these things are literally a blight on our environment. OK, it’s not gone but looks much better there and is less of an obstruction.

I’d support any campaign to challenge these hideous things.

Lorenzo | 17.06.23 - 11:43 a.m. | #

Well done!

J Hale | 17.06.23 - 11:58 a.m. | #

well done dg and his readers

Caroline | 17.06.23 - 12:35 p.m. | #

Democracy at work!
Keep it that way...

Thomas K Ohlsson | 17.06.23 - 1:45 p.m. | #

Genuinely made me so happy reading this. The corporate and bureaucratic machine so often feels immovable. I'll think about this story in times of pessimism. Bravo all round!

BP | 17.06.23 - 2:33 p.m. | #

Rob: No - it would just have involved more work to put the kiosk in the right place because of the presence of the "existing infrastructure"

Timbo | 17.06.23 - 2:34 p.m. | #

Hurrah! Excellent, well done all!

miker | 17.06.23 - 2:45 p.m. | #

Seems incredible that someone could submit a planning application to "retrospectively authorise" a development!

matthieu1221 | 17.06.23 - 3:42 p.m. | #

Retrospective planning permission seems to be quite commonly requested in domestic settings (side return infill, flat roofs, alterations to house exteriors, etc) and apparently an accepted practice, judging by my local council’s planning website. But for a major corporate like BT to try it on when they simply want to break the rules is just bullying.

Labourer | 17.06.23 - 7:56 p.m. | #

These little victories are well worth pursuing because over time they combine to create bigger victories. It's like the 'fixing broken windows' theory, where peoples perception that they live in an ordered environment leads to greater responsibility towards their community.

kewman | 17.06.23 - 10:42 p.m. | #

Absolutely fantastic and well done. It's these small victories that really make you realise that positive action can defeat the greedy and careless.

Shaun | 17.06.23 - 11:31 p.m. | #

Well done - this will be really beneficial to visually-impaired people. I always try to remember that a minor inconvenience for me can be a major obstacle for other people, and this helps to motivate me to do something in situations like this, to help out people who aren't able to fight things like this.

Michael | 18.06.23 - 8:13 a.m. | #

Well done :)
But this does show the lack of checking what has been allowed. All these things should be easy for some minimum wage employee to go and check. Not big buildings etc but smaller things like this certainly.

Kevin | 18.06.23 - 8:15 a.m. | #

Well done to all those involved in holding BT to account.

Unbelievable as it may seen, there is absolutely no check that what is built is actually what was allowed on any particular planning application.

Blue Witch | 18.06.23 - 12:39 p.m. | #

Congratulations. The next task will be to get these BT thingies removed when they become technologically redundant/malfunctioning/vandalised. Not easy.

I got a developer to move some newly installed benches next to the River Wandle away from the guard rail that made them impossible to sit on. They had been installed 6 inches from the railing. #developerfail.

south london lad | 18.06.23 - 1:43 p.m. | #

Hooray!

marmaduke jinks | 18.06.23 - 2:34 p.m. | #

Hurrah indeed! Well done dg.

ChrisL | 18.06.23 - 6:20 p.m. | #

Well done all and well done dg for higlighing it

Bruce Wayne | 18.06.23 - 7:43 p.m. | #











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