August 19, 2019 5.06 pm This story is over 55 months old

Councillor’s fears vandalised broadband boxes are a “safety risk”

“It’s frightening the thought of someone shoving their hands in.”
Councillor Mick Grant said some repairs had been left for ages - the one above, he said had been in the same position for a month. Photo: supplied

A Scunthorpe councillor has called on internet providers to make their green boxes stronger after finding a number around the town vandalised.

Councillor Mick Grant says he has lost count of the times he has complained about the boxes and fears for the health and safety of young children or animals.

“I use my push-bike to get around, and I go past a fair amount of these boxes and invariably they’re busted open. The door is either gone completely or is hanging off,” he said.

“I don’t know who’s doing it but It just seems like it’s going on all over the town. I don’t think it affects the service but it’s frightening the thought of it being open and someone, a small child or pet, shoving their hands in.”

Councillor Grant says he reports the boxes through the council highways department who pass the reports on, but says it can take “ages” for them to be fixed.

He’d like the companies to strengthen the boxes to stop them being vandalised, and called on more residents to report the broken ones.

One box near Scunthorpe Hospital, he says, has been broken for a month with nothing but a card board box advertising Virgin Media covering it.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: “Virgin Media is aware of a faulty cabinet in the Scunthorpe area and we are working to fix this as quickly as possible.

“We routinely monitor the condition of the equipment we have in in our network across the UK and are grateful for the support from local authorities and the general public when they alert us to any issues that they spot.”

Councillor Grant is concerned over the safety of open boxes. Photo supplied.

A spokesman for BT Openreach said they took the security of their network “very seriously” and the providers cabinets were “built to be very robust”.

They said: “We have had no recent reports of vandalised cabinets in the Scunthorpe area but are happy to look into any specific incidents.

A spokesman for North Lincolnshire Council said highways officers will check to see if there are any health and safety issues following reports, and put barriers up if necessary before passing reports on.

Damage to the Openreach network can be reported via https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/damage-health-and-safety.

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