Move a Virgin Media green street cabinet

[2001chavezl]

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

[2001chavezl]

 

 

 

[nodrogd]

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]

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.

[Jonny-M]

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]

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.

[2001chavezl]

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.

[2001chavezl]

Thank you for the information

[unisoft]

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@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.

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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.

[goslow]

I would agree with the other comments that your issue is with your developer rather than VM. The developer doubtless chose to do nothing about it because of the expense and admin involved. I doubt VM will move it for you at VM's expense.

There are regular enquiries on here about moving VM equipment. One of the last topics describes what is involved

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Manhole-Cover-Dropped-Kerb/m-p/5295367#M2...

The moderators keep removing the email address each time it comes up on here. There is a form for requesting moves here

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/diversionaryworks

One of the VM forum team may offer to assist in the process when they get here (usually within a few days).