MS3 – What now after the KCOM bogeymen have gone!?

UPDATE:

TIM SHAW CEO of KCOM answers questions about telegraph poles going up in the area (YouTube):

MS3 NETWORKS BOSSES have repeatedly shrugged their shoulders when facing angry residents and referred to the KCOM bogeymen ‘They’re keeping us out, they are not willing to share their poles and ducting’ they argue. This is repeated ad nauseam by their employees on the ground and by their Welch Civils contractors. Even the policeman who helped the poles lorry navigate through the people and cars on Shields Road estate just a few days ago, said that perhaps protesters ought to demonstrate at KCOM’s headquarters.

Well, that argument can be finally put to bed as a result of a very clear statement by KCOM published in response to Graham Stuart MP’s questions and wider general media interest in the MS3 poles issue. The statement below has been widely published in the media and verified with KCOM by the Hedon Blog:

KCOM “We’ve not had any requests for access to our poles or ducts in Hedon.“

“As we explained to Graham Stuart very clearly recently, we’re not stopping anyone from using our infrastructure – and we’ve not had any requests for access to our poles or ducts in Hedon.

“If MS3, or any other provider, want to apply for access to our network in Hedon we’d be happy to work with them and, indeed, we’re legally required to provide access to our infrastructure and process access requests quickly and efficiently.

“As we have said on numerous occasions, if other providers don’t agree with the prices we quote to access our network, then they are welcome to disagree and raise a dispute with Ofcom. To date, no other provider has done this. Under the rules, we’re only allowed to recover our costs for providing access and our quotes have never been queried.

“Where new providers are installing poles it’s entirely their own commercial choice and not because they have not been able to gain access to our infrastructure.

“We sympathise with local residents who are having unpopular poles installed in their streets but unfortunately that’s the decision of other providers and theirs alone. Other providers could do as KCOM has done and invest millions into building their own underground network but have chosen not to do so, instead opting for the cheaper option of installing poles.”

A KCOM spokesperson

The fact that MS3 Networks had reassured Hedon Town Council in 2022 that they were going underground – and it was only when 28-day notices went up on lampposts that their true intentions were declared – then it is apparent that they never had any plans to go underground, they had never approached KCOM in that time. In Parliamentary language, MS3 Networks have been ‘economical with the truth’.

Deprived of its ‘KCOM bogeyman’ cover story, we see the current Hedon crisis for what it is; an attempt by MS3 to plant poles as quickly, as easily and as profitably as it can.

As the campaign continues with plans to take the issue to Parliament, then the shattered reputation of MS3 will impact on ‘Network Builders’ everywhere. This will also affect Freedom Fibre who operate in the North West of England which we will demand is held to account in the same way that we require MS3 to be. But look at what Freedom Fibre CEO Neil McArthur has to say in defence of what they are doing there – it’s a real defence in complete comparison to anything we have ever heard from Guy Miller, CEO of MS3. In the final analysis, Neil McArthur says, that where there is an “overwhelming desire” not to have poles – and he says he uses his words carefully – “we will go away quietly”. Now, if like local authorities, Network Providers had a peer review service, then perhaps Mr McArthur would be a good person to review the debacle here in Hedon.

Community Engagement

At Hedon Town Council’s public participation meeting on Thursday (26 October), in response to a question about MS3’s community engagement, Hedon Town Council has confirmed that, other than the meeting a year ago, and the meeting on September 7, the company has conducted no consultation on its plans whatsoever. It was bemusing this week to see residents challenging Welch Civils contractors on the streets, resulting in the contractors negotiating in the street for hours on a more effective pole deployment resulting in an informal agreement to install fewer poles (albeit the street remains united in having no poles). The contractors are doing what MS3 seems incapable of doing, i.e. trying to engage with communities so obviously hostile to its plans.

Ironically, if MS3 had come to Hedon a year ago, and consulted and engaged with the various communities in the town, they would have identified points of support and developed productive relationships, that may have led to a different scenario than today. Instead, MS3 and its partners are boycotted in the town (and Preston) for the next ten years at least or until the poles are removed.

(Ongoing issue)