Openreach – access question

So Openreach are running fibre in our area – yay!

We live in a small close with a shared drive. Our phone lines run in a buried duct down the close and then up a pole. When Openreach came to pull the fibre through the duct they found a blockage. They wanted to dig up the drive to unblock it but the person who claims to own that section of the drive won’t let them – she had it badly re-tarmac’d  last winter and want Openreach to take responsibility for any future damage near the hole. She’s not worried about getting fibre as her phone line is from a pole on the main road.

Do Openreach have any right of access to repair their ductwork?

I don’t know where wayleaves are formally recorded but might be worth grabbing her title documents online and seeing if there’s anything there about either wayleaves or rights to run/access services across her property.

As it’s an existing duct, if a wayleave is already in place, as it should be, then they do not require further permission.

They do have to repair the drive to an acceptable standard, though.

Thanks, there’s no wayleave in the title documents but there is a “right of free passage and running of water soil gas and electricity and other services” with right of access for connection or repair. It’s time limited to services installed 21 years from 1968 so I guess there’s an argument that pulling new fibre is a new service. On the other hand, pulling new phone lines would be an existing service.

What a mess!

they found a blockage. They wanted to dig up the drive to unblock it but the person who claims to own that section of the drive won’t let them – she had it badly re-tarmac’d  last winter and want Openreach to take responsibility for any future damage near the hole

WHy am I thinking the poor tarmaccing job may in some way be related to the blockage?

If its on her land it does require a permision to dig.As Nbt said duct blockage could well be down to shonky driveway surfacing, also some blockages just need a bit of umph to rod and rope

Openreach will do a good repair based on when we had this exact issue. The Openreach sub contractors that initially dug the new trench for new ducting on the other hand did an abysmal job. The difference between each tarmac patch job is huge.