Broadband firm accused of doing wild roadworks in small village

A rural broadband provider has been accused of ramping up roadworks and cutting off an entire village for days with no regard for the consequences. Wildanet has installed fiber optic broadband cables in Golant, a small upstream village between Fowey and Lostwithiel, as part of a multi-million pound government contract to connect more rural homes and businesses to superfast broadband .

However, the work has left many in the village angry with the Liskeard company for turning its streets into no-go zones for days. “Our village has just been through hell,” said Karen Wells-West, who runs Eco B&B Sanctuary Cornwall. “My business has been affected. I contacted both CEOs along with customer service and they couldn’t care less.

“There seems to be no mechanism to stop them from causing stress and loss in the name of super fast internet access that none of us asked for. I really want to be able to prevent it from happening to others if I can.”

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Karen said the nondescript signs first appeared in Golant, warning locals that “essential works” would be carried out two weeks later. She said a family with a member in an electric wheelchair and driving a specially adapted van had booked to stay at her guesthouse while the work continued.

Karen said: “The last time BT put in a cable they covered the trench with metal plates and I had access so I assumed it would be the same but it’s not.”

She added: “I spent a frantic day emailing road closures to Cornwall Council who put me through to roadworks who said they couldn’t help but gave me the number of the manager of Dynamic Fiber, the contractors. Then I was very tense. text exchanges where I was told that the whole village had been informed beforehand and that they had spoken to the pub (which is true but not the other affected businesses) and access would be pedestrian only.

“When I pointed out that we had guests arriving in a power chair, I was told it would be fine if they ‘climbed up’. They obviously had no idea of ​​the distance and incline involved.”

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Karen said this led to many stressful days for her and her guests, who had to try and find a parking spot wherever they could in the village and beg contractors to help move them over the cable trenches.

She added: “My guests moved their van at 7am, the guest in the wheelchair had to precariously go down this very steep hill, be helped over the ditch and then his mum was told they wouldn’t be able to get . back that evening so they were stranded without their belongings and gear!

“It took all day to try and organize boards to cover the trenches and they stayed away as late as possible but unfortunately they got a flat tire on the way back in a ditch and had to wait 7.5 hours for a breakdown to help. their.

“This went on for almost a week with various guests – each time they arrived we had to go out and maneuver the boards back into place. The asphalt truck could not reach the road because the village is too small, and neither could the concrete truck. The final straw was when we left to do some shopping, only to find the road dug up to our left and right.

Karen said she contacted Wildanet’s bosses through the company’s customer service, but says she hasn’t had any luck either. She added: “They refused to engage, communicate or help in any way. I was contacted by their ‘Positive Impact and Community Outreach’ department, which I thought was a joke, to tell me that there had been an internal review and that I would have been informed of the outcome.”

She said that a week had passed and when she asked for compensation for the disruption to her business and its guests, she was told that Wildanet had contacted all the relevant authorities such as the parish council and every resident and had therefore done everything what is legal. obliged to do.

“I was refused compensation and given a food box voucher which, as the letter never arrived, would be useless anyway,” Karen added. “He could have booked a seat in the town hall and personally explained to the village what was going to happen and answered questions. Instead, they hide behind the mistaken belief that everyone has been informed, which is simply not true.

“I’ve never known a CEO who wasn’t interested in how their business is run and viewed – except for this business – they lead from the bottom, not the top. I can only assume this is because they have large sums of government money and I think they can just do whatever they want with no recourse.

“So my question is, how can I try to stop this from happening to others? The irony is that we’re completely off the grid and have no WiFi, so I’ve had all this stress and anxiety and I’m desperately trying to take care of myself. guests for wildanet’s vanity project There’s no way I’m signing up with them now – if that’s how they behave on installation, imagine what they’ll be like when they try to offer a service?

“I’d like to think there’s a way to help other communities that will have this mess on them. Wildanet won’t do anything, so what can I do instead?”

This is not the first time that Wildanet has angered the villages. In October last year, locals in Perran Downs, a village between Penzance and Praa Sands, were left without access to their own roads for almost two days. At the other end of the county there was a similar story in Probus, when residents were trapped after the internet company dug up their road without warning.

In 2023, Wildanet was awarded two contracts, worth a total of £36m, by the UK Government to connect up to 19,250 homes and businesses in South West and Mid Cornwall. This was followed in April 2024 by further investment from the UK Government, which saw Wildanet awarded a £41m contract to roll out new connections to a further 16,800 homes and businesses in East Cornwall, West Cornwall and St Mary’s Island in the Isles. of Scilly.

A Wildanet spokesman apologized for the disruption, saying it had communicated with local residents and businesses ahead of the work.

They added: “We accept that despite the best efforts of the construction team to help on site, the work has affected people locally, including Karen Wells-West and her guests, and apologize for the disruption. However, given the nature and constraints of this facility we believe that the building work has been delivered to a high standard and fully in accordance with the permissions in place from Cornwall Council.”

The Wildanet spokesman said it was proud to bring gigabit-capable broadband to the hardest-to-reach areas of Cornwall, such as Golant, many of which had previously been ignored by the big telcos.

They added: “Working in these areas is challenging and Wildanet is well aware of the impact that a large infrastructure building program can have on both individuals and communities.

“We try to do everything we can to mitigate and minimize this, but it is not possible to completely avoid some disruptions as we balance maintaining access with the need to always ensure a safe working environment for agents and the public in accordance with good practices and the work permits we receive from Cornwall Council as the highways authority.

“In the case of Golant, we started contact with the parish council on April 5, 2024, almost three months before the start of the works (on June 24, 2024). This began a long period of discussions with the parish council, in -meetings with the chairman of the parish council, letters to residents and businesses and several subsequent visits by Wildanet and our contractor.

“We were happy to consider the comments and requests, including a request to speed up construction to finish two days early (Friday 28 June 2024) to allow the village fete and events at Castledore Rowing Club to take place without restrictions.”