Forum Discussion

2001chavezl's avatar
2001chavezl
Tuning in
8 months ago
Solved

Move a Virgin Media green street cabinet

We have a Virgin Media street cabinet directly in front of our drive which we need moving as it is partially blocking access to our driveway (by almost a metre). Please see pictures.

Aside from it continuing to make it really difficult for us to get our vehicles on and off our drive, there’s been several near misses by us and visitors as the cabinets are not very high and difficult to see when attempting to reverse while also trying to avoid other vehicles already on the drive.

I should mention that a pub used to stand where our house now is and the box was there prior to the house being built. The driveway was built with the house and no alterations have been made to the driveway. The pub was demolished and 4 semis were built in its place. Strangely, the cabinet was never relocated when the houses were built even though it was partially blocking access to one of the properties and the new layout/change to residential use.

If the box was relocated only a couple of feet to the right, we would have full access to our drive and the neighbours would be unaffected by this as the box would sit directly in front of their brick wall as the entrance to their drive is on the other side. It is a safety hazard due to its current location and it is only a matter of time before someone does drive into it and causes damage to not just the box and everything housed inside but also their vehicle.

Please can someone get back to me on this. Many thanks

  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    8 months ago

    That is an old HFC distribution cabinet that will have probably been in situ since the network was built in the 1990s. By the size of it it is likely to be serving 100+ customers via individual lines, & possibly other cabinets as well. VM charges around £250 to come out & assess any alterations. As the cabinet is in a service strip & not on your land, charges to move it, even if it is feasible, could be a four figure sum. These boxes will be obsolete in a few years time anyway when VM moves to full fibre operation.

  • carl_pearce's avatar
    carl_pearce
    Community elder
    8 months ago

    It probably wasn't moved due to the costs, as mentioned above.

    Not to mention the loss of service to, potentially, 100's of customers in the local area, for a period of time.

    • 2001chavezl's avatar
      2001chavezl
      Tuning in
      8 months ago

      Thank you, I am aware of all of that. However, the responsibility still ultimately lies with the developer and Virgin Media as a cabinet that is partially blocking a driveway by almost a metre should not have been left in situ and therefore, the cost to move it a couple of feet shouldn’t land on the resident. It is a safety hazard and needs addressing before someone does crash into it.

  • Jonny-M's avatar
    Jonny-M
    Fibre optic
    8 months ago

    As stated, this would be a chargeable move and easily be several thousand pounds if VM agree to do it. Really the property developer should have done this as part of the work undertaken on the site.

    • 2001chavezl's avatar
      2001chavezl
      Tuning in
      8 months ago

      Thank you, I am aware of all of that. However, the responsibility still ultimately lies with the developer and Virgin Media as a cabinet that is partially blocking a driveway by almost a metre should not have been left in situ and therefore, the cost to move it a couple of feet shouldn’t land on the resident. It is a safety hazard and only a matter of time before someone does crash into it.

      • unisoft's avatar
        unisoft
        Knows their stuff
        8 months ago
        2001chavezl wrote:

        Thank you, I am aware of all of that. However, the responsibility still ultimately lies with the developer and Virgin Media as a cabinet that is partially blocking a driveway by almost a metre should not have been left in situ and therefore, the cost to move it a couple of feet shouldn’t land on the resident. It is a safety hazard and only a matter of time before someone does crash into it.

        VM do not need to do anything for this one. It was legally in place when the original building was there. As the land was redeveloped and the developer did not take this into account, you would have viewed the property whilst it was in situ and known about it.

        If you wait till 2030 - you may start to see cabinets going although will not be overnight. I suspect the full fibre upgrade will be delayed after 2028 anyway, but it will take time when an area is upgraded to move customers off the old network onto the new network. In this scenario a large number of cabinets, especially larger ones would be surplus, but they could also look into other ways of using them. BT for example, are looking to re-purpose some of their old FTTC cabinets as electrical charging stations for cars. They could also be future 5G or 6G infill repeater stations if they went down that avenue; just needs a modest mast fixed to it or supply the wiring from it to a street lamp where antennas inside for example.

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person
    8 months ago
    2001chavezl wrote:

    The pub was demolished and 4 semis were built in its place. Strangely, the cabinet was never relocated when the houses were built

    At the risk of adding to the replies already, there's nothing strange about developers proceeding here on the hope that someone would buy the house in knowledge that the cabinet is already legally in situ.

    Any future issues with that cab would become the home-owners issue. If they were unable to sell the homes because of the pre-existing incumbrance, they may have taken a different view.

    • 2001chavezl's avatar
      2001chavezl
      Tuning in
      8 months ago

      It is not the home owners issue as the cabinet is not on our land, it is on a service strip directly in front of the driveway. As already stated, the main issue is that it is a clear health and safety risk and VM WOULD be at legally liable if the issue has been reported as a safety risk (backed up by photographic evidence) and they decided to not take action, only for someone to then crash into it and injure themselves. That is the point I am making. As already stated, I have now been able to contact them privately. 

      • nodrogd's avatar
        nodrogd
        Very Insightful Person
        8 months ago
        2001chavezl wrote:

        It is not the home owners issue as the cabinet is not on our land, it is on a service strip directly in front of the driveway. As already stated, the main issue is that it is a clear health and safety risk and VM WOULD be at legally liable if the issue has been reported as a safety risk (backed up by photographic evidence) and they decided to not take action, only for someone to then crash into it and injure themselves. That is the point I am making. As already stated, I have now been able to contact them privately. 

        Legally, you do not have a leg to stand on, as you bought the property in full knowledge of the access restriction. VM has planning consent for it to be sited where it is. In many cases (as in my road) property owners will create car access to the front of their property whether or not they have agreed a VCO (vehicle crossover) with the local council for them to legally have access to it (see photo below). In your case the VCO has been installed outside the boundary of the box, so they obviously saw no safety issue when agreeing to install it.

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person
    8 months ago

    If the cabinet was there before both the home & driveway, I can't see how any H&S risk is on VM.

    I would think yhe risk is on the person/organisation who converted the property and/or who subsequently purchased it.

    • 2001chavezl's avatar
      2001chavezl
      Tuning in
      8 months ago

      I actually work in H&S and deal with risk assessments on a daily basis. Any previous risk assessment would have been based on when the pub was still there and not on the new layout and would therefore no longer be applicable as the land use has changed. While I agree the developer should have liaised with VM to relocate it, ultimately, it is VM who is responsible for carrying out the work and as VM owns the cabinet, they would responsible if someone get injured as a result of their equipment. In a court of law, that is what it would be based on. It is their equipment.

      • unisoft's avatar
        unisoft
        Knows their stuff
        8 months ago
        2001chavezl wrote:

        I actually work in H&S and deal with risk assessments on a daily basis. Any previous risk assessment would have been based on when the pub was still there and not on the new layout and would therefore no longer be applicable as the land use has changed. While I agree the developer should have liaised with VM to relocate it, ultimately, it is VM who is responsible for carrying out the work and as VM owns the cabinet, they would responsible if someone get injured as a result of their equipment. In a court of law, that is what it would be based on. It is their equipment.

        You really can't be at a level where you do H&S seriously then. Does not matter that the land use was changed for the area that was redeveloped. The cabinet is sitting outside of that OWNED area and the cabinet is minding its own business on original land that was legally agreed to. You make some wild claims on here about "people injuring themselves". Is that because the cabinet has doors open exposing live cables?, is it because the cabinet has sharp metal protruding? Of course not, its a cabinet like 1000's of others around the UK so why should this one particular cabinet be deemed H&S public safety issue? The 1000's of others aren't suddenly an issue.

        The UK has a case based legal system and goes on facts and evidence.

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person
    8 months ago

    Well that's a very "interesting" view on it, considering the cabinet was there before the property was built and you bought the property in full knowledge of its existence.

    This one won't be resolved on this thread, but does seem to me a clear case of caveat emptor - if anything, common sense would suggest the H&S risk was created by the house build and any driveway extension.

  • Tudor's avatar
    Tudor
    Very Insightful Person
    8 months ago

    Viewing the picture supplied by Nodrogd I can see there is a bus stop immediately outside your house and NO dropped kerb. I believe it’s illegal to drive over a pavement to your home without a dropped kerb in place. It’s much more of a H&S issue of people driving over the pavement that the location of the VM box. I’m sure the local council will assist if there really is a problem. It’s nothing to do with VM.

    • japitts's avatar
      japitts
      Very Insightful Person
      8 months ago
      Tudor wrote:

      Viewing the picture supplied by Nodrogd I can see there is a bus stop immediately outside your house and NO dropped kerb.

      nodrogdhas, I think, posted a picture of another example - to illustrate the point of a cabinet being legally sited before development works change its situation. There has been a previous case on here where a local "rag" style newspaper reported a householder's complaints over the VM telecoms cab blocking their paved garden (I use the phrase instead of "driveway" intentionally).

      It didn't take much research into historic Google Street View displays to show then, that the cab was installed when a substantial hedgeline separated the pavement from the garden. Over time, the garden became paved over and the hedgeline removed, to leave the telecoms cab in situ. By the logic of the H&S theory above, I wouldn't be surprised if that were also VM's fault!

      But yes, I'm fairly sure you're right about driving over a raised kerb. Part of the dropped-kerb is to create the legal right of vehicle passage.

    • nodrogd's avatar
      nodrogd
      Very Insightful Person
      8 months ago
      Tudor wrote:

      Viewing the picture supplied by Nodrogd I can see there is a bus stop immediately outside your house and NO dropped kerb. I believe it’s illegal to drive over a pavement to your home without a dropped kerb in place. It’s much more of a H&S issue of people driving over the pavement that the location of the VM box. I’m sure the local council will assist if there really is a problem. It’s nothing to do with VM.

      Not my house (or my road), but a common example near my location of how occupiers put parking in without the proper access. This is actually an out of date photo as the cabinet doors became damaged a while ago & the new cabinet that replaced it is double the size.

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Trouble shooter
    8 months ago

    Purely for purposes of expanding on this lively thread (I duck out of taking any view on the specifics) I did come across the following older thread regarding privately commissioning VM to move cabinets (which I understand the OP has no wish to do - again this is just for information purposes) which makes reference to lots of very obscure VM teams and contact details that I have never come across before https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Move-a-Virgin-Street-Cabinet/td-p/5180344

  • 2001chavezl's avatar
    2001chavezl
    Tuning in
    8 months ago

    Thanks to those that gave their perspective/opinion in a constructive and educated way. I have now reached out to the relevant team directly and all is now resolved.

    • unisoft's avatar
      unisoft
      Knows their stuff
      8 months ago
      2001chavezl wrote:

      Thanks to those that gave their perspective/opinion in a constructive and educated way. I have now reached out to the relevant team directly and all is now resolved.

      what was the resolution then? VM won't simply move it, because they have a legally agreed placed cabinet and would cost them thousands. They may agree to send someone out to look as an initial stage to see if they could shift by a few inches to the right if space.