'Giant monstrosity' broadband pole installed next to 76-year-old's house
03.10.2023 - 09:51
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A 76-year-old woman in Rochdale has complained that a broadband mast from IX Wireless was put up directly outside her home without warning.
June Eastwood, of Clarendon Street, said the company had not contacted her before starting work despite it causing the whole house to shake during the installation. Neighbour Alan Chadwick, who lives across the street and can see the pole from his window, said it was put up on Monday, August 18.
Ms Eastwood has now been left with the pole directly next to her home of 33 years, and she fears that more work may be planned which would make the structure even taller.
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She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): "I have no control over it. Green boxes and this have gone up and I never had a word about it. They were here for four hours and everything in the house was shaking. We have been here for 33 and a half years, I was sure they should have given me some warning.
"I think it's a disgrace. Our neighbours can see it when they open the window. What will happen to the price of my house which I have kept in good order? No one will want it."
The Rochdale resident confirmed she has put in a complaint to the council about the broadband mast and hopes something can be done about it.
Councillor Neil Emmott, leader of Rochdale Borough Council, called the structure "giant monstrosity" and urged the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, to stop "mast madness" in Rochdale.
He told the LDRS: “This is yet another example of an unsightly and intrusive telecoms development riding roughshod over a local community. It is totally out of keeping