Electricity / Telephone Utility Pole

Pollyhorror

Hi all,

I have planning permission for a second floor room to be built on an existing ground floor extension at the rear of my property.

However, there are telephone and power cables running over the top of the space I need to build into. Not the main lines (between poles), but the feed from a wooden pole to individual properties.

The pole these are attached to is in my neighbour's garden, and none of the lines which need to be moved feed my property - they feed neighbours on the other side of me, and as such are in my "airspace" and in the way of where I need to build.

If they were feeding my property it would be easier to accept that I would pay for their relocation, but as they aren't "mine" I feel slightly aggrieved that I must pay for their relocation.

Any advice anyone can provide on this - particularly with regard to whether I have to pay for the lines to be moved?

Thank you!

chanz4

Not only that its if the company will move them

System

You will probably have to pay for possibly a second pole to steer the cables away from your property.

The airspace may be above your land but utility companies can route their cables across it without permission from the landowner or a way-leave being required.

JC_Derby

im not sure, but oversailing should require a wayleave?
has anyone actually spoken to the DNo or BT?

System

JC_Derby wrote: »

im not sure, but oversailing should require a wayleave?
has anyone actually spoken to the DNo or BT?

For BT lines

Schedule 2 of the Telecommunication Axct 1984 as amended by the Communication Act 2003

Power to fly lines
10 (1)Subject to paragraph 3 above and the following provisions of this code, where any electronic communications apparatus is kept installed on or over any land for the purposes of the operator’s network, the operator shall, for the statutory purposes, have the right to install and keep installed lines which—
(a)pass over other land adjacent to or in the vicinity of the land on or over which that apparatus is so kept;
(b)are connected to that apparatus; and
(c)are not at any point in the course of passing over the other land less than 3 metres above the ground or within 2 metres of any building over which they pass.

So no wayleave required for telephone lines be they buried or overflying

Pollyhorror

Just thought I would close this one out in case anyone else faces a similar issue.

UK Power DO require a wayleave in place to oversail cables on your property, which leaves you three options:

If there IS a wayleave, you can:

1.withdraw it with 12 months notice (UK Power will remove it at no cost to you after 12 months).
2. pay to have it moved. I was quoted around £2k for this.

If there is NO wayleave in place, UK power have to shift it, quickly and at no cost to you. They can try to get you to sign a wayleave, and they have some statutory rights which can sort of force you to have a wayleave (in rare cases if you were for example going to deprive another property of power because the only cabling route was via your land).

In my case - no wayleave, cables are gone, and I am ready to start building.