Overhead Phone Lines

hinch · 08-06-2010, 11:53

Hi chaps/chapesses,
I'm not sure if this is the correct site for my particular problem but if anybody can help then thank you. Here goes. I am trying to stop the local bird population from perching and using two overhead phone lines as a toilet. One line is mine and the other belongs to my immediate neighbour. These lines pass directly over my garden and my parking place where the birds evacuate very frequently on my new car and my washing. Before you ask, it is not possible to move the washing line and my parking space is what it is. I could park on the public road I suppose but I would prefer not to.
Anyway, to make matters worse my next door neighbour attracts the local bird life by having a fully stocked bird table which is why the birds perch near by in the first place.
Because I was getting so fed up with re-washing my clothes and car, I decided to attempt to disuade the birds from perching on the lines by attaching a couple of lengths of tinsel using small cable-ties.
Needless to say, the neighbour thinks I am childish (yes but it is affective) and has asked me to remove the tinsel on HIS wire because "I pay ten pounds a month for it and I don't want it to be damaged". His cable travels directly over my car and garden (as I mentioned previously) and attaches to the wall below his guttering of his bungalow.
By the way, I am not trying to eliminate the birds altogether but just persuade them to perch elsewhere as my initial attempt using a large plastic owl failed.
I would like to know what the rules are about any aspect of this scenario please anybody?

Kymmy · 08-06-2010, 12:00

Hi Hinch and welcome to the forum.

I've moved your thread to OTHER TELCO SERVICES as that's more suited for the topic.

Your question is a hard one to answer, I don;t think he has the right to ask you to remove the tinsel as it's simply not his wire but BT's.. But if the wire was damaged then BT would probably come knocking on your door as in effect you have messed with the wire.

The fact that the wire is over your car/garden/property doesn't give you any rights to it, the only time you can complain is if it's within a certain distance from your property but I think it's only a couple of meters. Best bet is to probably ask on the BT forums as VM users don't tend to have this sort of problem as the cable is delivered underground

weesteev · 09-06-2010, 23:04

Moving the wire almost certainly means moving the pole.... which really isnt an option. The infrastructure is controlled by BT Openreach so I would contact them for guidance, or as Kymmy stated it may be worthwhile trying the BT Forums as well.

jrhnewark · 10-06-2010, 00:10

Keep the tinsel on the wire unless BT complain. It's not that chap's cable, it's BT's... he doesn't rent a physical line, even though he may believe in some old fashioned world that he does.

goblin · 13-06-2010, 15:07

Like you say, he's got a fully stocked bird table and so he's encouraging the birds\vermin (depending upon your point of view) to sit around and do what they do.

So you could conceivably argue that as stated he's encouraging them. As such he's partly liable for any costs incurred as a result of them being there. I am sure if they were soiling his car, clothes and household he wouldn't feel the need to encourage them, so why then should he feel that you should put up with it?

Perhaps have a quiet word with him and point out that you feel he's contributing to the birds adding their corrosive droppings to your car and as such you feel that he's jointly contributing to this vandalism by the nature of his encouragement. So you feel that he should meet your costs of repair, or clean-up for as long as he feels the need to encourage the birds\ vermin's presence in both your lives. If he feels that this is unacceptable then he will agree to put up with whatever methods you feel are warranted to employ to rid the pests from the local area. Perhaps nip out and grab a copy of 'Farmers Weekly' Or 'Farmers Guardian' and look out for something like the 'Vari Scarey Gas Gun', the occasional 'BOOM' which may wake both you your neighbour and those in a 10 mile radius up, but at least it will rid you of the birds

Or perhaps he may prefer the tinsel hanging from the line or something you could make like described alongside the aforementioned gas gun: http://www.techneat-birdscaring.co.uk/ or perhaps some of those mentioned here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_scarer may catch your eye. The mere mention of such may fill your neighbour with outrage, though when he eventually calms down he may see your point of view.

Oh yes and as others have said, unless the tinsel is causing some technical malfunction. Then it's doubtful that BT will have an opinion on it. If the pole is sited on your land, then BT should pay you a nominal 'rent' for it being there, if this is the case you can also request that it be re-sited which may eliminate all problems associated with its present location. Indeed if things escelate between your neighbour and yourself, you could even write to BT and advise them you think they're jointly liable as to the birds using it as a perch and them soiling and the corrosive nature of their droppings and involvement in your life. They can't argue they've never seen birds resting on their lines can they, so surely they're aware of the situation and so may enlist some device to rid you of the birds themselves.

HTH

mr. k · 26-08-2010, 01:13

hi people,
found this site while trying to find out how to get a dissused phone cable removed from my property.
don't think I can help with Hinch's problem as my answer would be shoot the vermin, be it the birds or the neigbough!
Hope someone might be able to point me in the right direction as the BT website sent me nowhere and their automated phone service is the most useless I have come across (ironic).

thank you for your help (hopefully)

Mr. K

Kingofthedead4 · 26-08-2010, 01:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr. k

hi people,
found this site while trying to find out how to get a dissused phone cable removed from my property.
don't think I can help with Hinch's problem as my answer would be shoot the vermin, be it the birds or the neigbough!
Hope someone might be able to point me in the right direction as the BT website sent me nowhere and their automated phone service is the most useless I have come across (ironic).

thank you for your help (hopefully)

Mr. K

Welcome to the site. and Im sure someone will be able to help.

Paul K · 26-08-2010, 07:00

From the street to your master/ test socket is seen as BT property so I would doubt you could get it removed easily. Why are you looking to remove it?

Peter_ · 26-08-2010, 07:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr. k

hi people,
found this site while trying to find out how to get a dissused phone cable removed from my property.
don't think I can help with Hinch's problem as my answer would be shoot the vermin, be it the birds or the neigbough!
Hope someone might be able to point me in the right direction as the BT website sent me nowhere and their automated phone service is the most useless I have come across (ironic).

thank you for your help (hopefully)

Mr. K

Years ago I had my soffits and fascias replaced and as we did not have a BT phone once the fitters removed the cable from the house I went over to the pole and wrapped it around it multiple times nad knotted to the best of my ability.

A few weeks later the cable had been removed and no one ever contacted me over the removal.

Now that is what I did and is not a recommendation as BT may look on it a bit dimly nowadays as I removed mine over 16 years ago.

Paul K · 26-08-2010, 08:19

A lot of it comes down to if they catch you, if you take it down and they come in to install a line they may find it suspicious that a drop isn't there but if you say it wasn't there when you moved in they can't prove otherwise.... unless you were with BT and have recently left lol

Peter_ · 26-08-2010, 08:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

A lot of it comes down to if they catch you, if you take it down and they come in to install a line they may find it suspicious that a drop isn't there but if you say it wasn't there when you moved in they can't prove otherwise.... unless you were with BT and have recently left lol

I was a cable customer at the time and had no need of the line so removed it as otherwise it would have spoilt my facia.

It is funny when BT reps knock and I point out that we actually have no incoming line, yuo think they would look up to check.

mr. k · 26-08-2010, 22:14

Thank you to Paul & Masque for your replies,
in answer to Paul the reason to remove it is because it's fixing to the house doesn't look very secure and the cable hangs over mine and next doors cars.
in answer to Masque your actions were what I was thinking of doing if didn't get any sense from BT very soon.

cheers guys.

Dee Ball · 24-01-2022, 15:04

I've had three visits from Openreach to attach cable ties to the overhead wires crossing my driveway to prevent bird gathering with subsequent droppings.
In these 3 visits Openreach have steadily increased the number of ties and the problem seems to be getting less of a problem.
It looks a little strange but is doing the job, so thanks to Openreach.

joglynne · 24-01-2022, 15:49

Hi Dee, welcome to the forum. The fact you found a thread that obviously prompted you to join our forum is great. I hope you find others, maybe a little more current, that you will find interesting.

You are not on your own resurrecting old threads, we have a member who does it quite often .