FRUSTRATED Dudley residents are calling on brsk to stop the installation of "ugly" telegraph poles on their estate.

People living on the Spring Parklands estate held a meeting with brsk, local councillor Sara Bothul and Marco Longhi, MP for Dudley North last month.

More than 125 residents have signed a petition calling for the firm to halt work to install poles, which started on October 8, despite residents calling for it to engage in a dialogue with them.

They say they have been "subject to the enforced installation, without proper consultation or even any detailed plan, of wooden telegraph-type posts on the estate."

Dudley News: A meeting was held with residents, Marco Longhi MP and brsk representativesA meeting was held with residents, Marco Longhi MP and brsk representatives (Image: Handout)

Residents' spokesman Steve Britton said: "There is overwhelming support against the telegraph-type posts being erected.

"Spring Parklands was built in the 1960s and one of its key features is that all telecommunications were installed underground.

"This has enabled the residents to enjoy a landscape [in what is otherwise a post-industrial area] that is clear of what was the usual ugly network of telegraph poles and telephone cables.

"The more elderly residents, as much if not more than anyone, find looking out their windows to a clear, unobstructed sky, a source of pleasure.

"This will be torn from them by corporate greed and ignorance, when in most cases, they will not benefit from “the betterNet” [a BRSK soundbite?], that’s if they even use broadband devices, which most don’t."

Steve said a group of residents attempted dialogue with the on-site engineer, after the first telegraph-type post was installed.

He said: "The council was contacted, who sent a representative to attend. The BRSK on-site engineer spoke to their management and promised that no further work would be undertaken on Thursday or Friday.

"They installed a second post before leaving on Thursday!"

A spokesperson for brsk said: "We take community concerns seriously.

"We have had numerous discussions with local councillor Sara Bothul and MP Marco Longhi.

"A community town hall meeting was held on the 19th of October for residents to raise concerns, and the agreed way forward was that the MP’s office would compile all concerns for brsk to then address.

"On Wednesday, 8 November brsk received the collated concerns from residents from the MP’s office, and will endeavour to answer these points and return a response during the course of next week."

They added: "Poles are required to deploy the network because in certain instances, a large amount of infrastructure already exists underground, which leaves no space for any new infrastructure.

"Opening trenches also creates significant risk to the other services in the ground and there is always the risk that water, gas or power services will be damaged, leaving residents without these services while they are being repaired.

"Trenching is also extremely disruptive."

They said work is being carried out to support the Government's pledge to deliver nationwide gigabit-broadband (which is only achievable with full fibre) by 2030 and added "the community should be proud to have been prioritised so soon, in the deployment of full fibre broadband to their area."