BT should ring the changes at exchange
MUCH has been spoken and written in recent weeks about smartening up Ashbourne (in fact it was front page news in last week’s News Telegraph).
One such blot on the landscape is the appalling state of the BT telephone exchange on Park Road.
The boundary fences are rotten and falling down onto the pavement, what was in the past a well kept area of grass has been, until rectently, an overgrown jungle of five foot high weeds, and even the building looks shabby and neglected with peeling paint and rotting woodwork.
When this exchange was opened in the early 1960s I was a GPO engineer working on customers’ telephone mainteance, and it was a part of our duties to keep these areas of grass mown. The GPO even provided the mower.
BT is a huge, profitable company; it is apalling that they have let this area fall into such an ugly state of neglect, particularly as it is in such a prominent position seen by many visitors to the town.
I have tried to contact BT in the past without success. Perhaps the News Telegraph might have more success getting an answer.
Peter Beales
Longford
* The News Telegraph has contacted BT, and this was their response: “We can confirm that this site has recently
undergone some maintenance work, and welcome the feedback from residents in the area.
“We encourage colleagues and our neighbours to report any concerns about our properties by calling the BT Property Helpdesk.
“Sustainability is important to
BT, and at some of our properties we are looking at allowing grass to grow and cut it less often. Many organisations, including councils, are taking a similar approach to support biodiversity.”