Where to put pavement broadband cabinets

SIR – Our rural village has, for some years, been trying desperately to improve our snail’s-pace broadband service.

However, finding sensible locations for green broadband cabinets off the pavements, as Robert Hale suggests (Letters, February 7), can be more difficult and costly than might appear at first sight.

We were elated when funding became available, so that BT Openreach could install a cabinet on the outskirts of our village, tucked away in a hedgerow.

Consternation set in, though, when it was revealed that the cabinet was actually on private land and the legal red tape required for its location to be approved would be prohibitively expensive.

Thankfully, the cabinet has been relocated to a publicly owned nearby location as part of the village’s traffic calming measures. Mike Rowe

Offham, Kent

SIR – Mr Hale complained about the proliferation of broadband cabinets on pavements.

What about the owners of cafes that put tables and chairs on the pavement but fail to surround them with barriers – a condition of holding a Pavement Cafe Licence. This furniture is a hazard for blind people. Bernard Powell Southport, Lancashire

SIR – As an elderly, slower-moving deaf person, I cope very well with broadband cabinets on pavements.

It is the runners and cyclists who pose a greater risk. Zoe Percy

Orpington, Kent

SIR – Mr Hale should be grateful. We in rural Somerset would be delighted to have a green broadband cabinet “cluttering” a pavement.

Our broadband speed is less than half the Government’s quoted aim of 10Mbps. Tim Hoyle

Butleigh Wootton, Somerset

SIR – If electric cars become widespread, and owned by people without their own driveway, we can expect them to be charged at the kerbside, with cables stretched across the pavement.

If we are serious about the use of electric cars, we need to resolve this problem now.

We could become a “problems anticipated” society, rather than the “lessons learned” society we are now. Mick Oliver

Stanmore, Middlesex