Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, has received a letter from Julia Lopez, Minister of State for Data and Digital Infrastructure, following a roundtable on Broadband Poles.

 In the letter, the Minister committed to providing local authorities with further guidance on current regulations, and advised that a new Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice would be agreed within a year’s time.

The letter also addressed concerns, raised by constituents and echoed by Caroline at the roundtable, that creosote was being used on telegraph poles. The Minister confirmed that the substance was subject to strict regulatory criteria, and that it is therefore approved for use on the preservation of telegraph poles.

Since Spring 2023, when Caroline first received complaints from residents that they were being ignored by toob, the company responsible for erecting telegraph poles on multiple roads in Alverstoke, she has:

  1. Written to OFCOM asking that the regulator intervene.
  2. Met with then- Culture, Media, and Sport Minister Sir John Whittingdale to seek his views on how affected constituents could take action against toob.
  3. Asked to meet toob on numerous occasions.
  4. Met with OFCOM to press her constituents’ concerns that they had not been appropriately consulted by toob.
  5. Attended an MPs’ roundtable with the Minister of State for Data and Digital Infrastructure, Julia Lopez, to ensure that her constituents’ voices are being heard at the highest level of Government, and to seek further action from the Government.

 Responding to the Minister’s letter, Caroline said: “I am glad that the Minister has engaged so readily with me and other concerned MPs on this issue, and that she is taking action in this area to ensure all stakeholders know what current guidelines allow.

“I remain very happy to hear from anyone in Gosport, Lee-on-the-Solent, Stubbington, and Hill Head who feels that they have been wrongfully ignored by toob or any other company.”