Not in my backyard! Stubborn OAP lands village with snail’s pace broadband
A DEFIANT pensioner is locked in a battle with neighbours after refusing to let workmen bring faster broadband to his village.
Raymond Moreton, 86, will not allow BT into his garden to upgrade a junction box at his £400,000 property.
The telecoms giant wants to install an updated version of the box so it can offer residents highspeed internet. But Mr Moreton says it will devalue his house.
Neighbours say they are stuck with “painfully slow” broadband because he is adamant he will not let engineers onto his land.
He has stood in workmens’ way and on one occasion the police were called out.
Mr Moreton, a former Army aircraft mechanic, insists he is standing up for his rights and that his land in Yelverton, Norfolk, has been “invaded”.
He claims it has caused him so much stress that he feared he was going to drop dead at one point.
But neighbours, who have to endure broadband speeds around one-tenth of the UK average, have accused him of blocking progress and say they cannot understand “what his beef is”.
Handyman Steven Oliver, 42, who lives a few doors away with wife Julie, said: “We’re trying to get fibre optic internet and I am not very happy about it.
“My wife works for a printing company and sometimes she has to use the internet at night. It’s so slow that we have to stop using everything else.”
And Michael Wooldridge, 79, added: “He’s got a bee in his bonnet and he won’t let them in.”
When Mr Moreton and his wife Marion, 85, bought the bungalow in 1998 they were happy for engineers to make visits to the existing box.
But in 2014 BT told Mr Moreton they wanted to put in a new one and offered him £758.
He refused, saying it would knock £50,000 off the value of his home and cause extra traffic.
BT agreed to site the new box in a nearby lane but then Mr Moreton found a workman digging a trench to his garden and has barred their way since.
He said: “I feel they are invading my personal property. I don’t want people trampling all over my garden several times a week.”
Norfolk County Council now says there is uncertainty over the boundaries of his garden.
BT said: “We will assess the situation once the public boundary has been clearly defined.”
A county council spokesman added: “We’re confident the issue can be settled soon.”