A rural broadband provider has been accused of cutting an entire village off for days without caring about the consequences. Wildanet has been laying fibre optic broadband cables in Golant, a small village upriver between Fowey and Lostwithiel as part of a a multi-million-pound government contract to connect more rural homes and businesses to superfast broadband.
However, the work has left some of residents in the village feeling angry with the Liskeard company for turning their streets into no-go areas for days. "Our village has just been through hell," Karen Wells-West, who runs the eco B&B Sanctuary Cornwall, said. "My business has been affected. I have contacted both CEOs along with customer services and they couldn’t care less.
"There appears to be no mechanism in place for preventing them inflicting stress and loss in the name of super fast internet access which none of us have asked for. I really want to be able to stop it happening to others if I can."
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Karen claims that nondescript signs first appeared in Golant warning locals that ‘essential works’ would be carried out two weeks later. She said a family with a member in a power wheelchair and driving a specially adapted van, had booked to stay at her B&B at the time the work would be going ahead.
Karen said: "Last time BT put in a cable they covered up the trench with metal boards and we had access, so I assumed it would be the same but it's not."
She added: "I spent a frantic day emailing Cornwall Council road closures, who passed me onto street works, who said they couldn’t help, but gave me the number of the director of Dynamic Fibre, the contractors. I then had very tense text exchanges where I was told that the whole village had been informed in advance and that there had been discussions with the pub (which is true, but not the other businesses affected), and there would be pedestrian access only.
"When I pointed out I had guests arriving in a power chair, I was told that would be fine if they ‘walked it up’. They obviously had no idea about the distance and incline involved."
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Karen said this led to many stressful days for her and her guests who had to try and find a parking space wherever they could in the village and plead with the contractors to help be moved across the cable trenches.
She added: "My guests moved their van at 7am in the morning, the guest in the wheelchair had to precariously go down this very steep hill, be manhandled over the trench, and then his mother was told they wouldn’t be able to get back that evening, so they were stranded without their things and equipment!
"It took the whole day to try and organise boards to cover the trenches, and they stayed away as late as possible, but unfortunately they split a tyre on the way back up on a trench and had to wait 7.5hrs for a breakdown to help them.
"This continued for almost a week with various guests - every time they arrived we had to go out and manhandle the boards back in place. The tarmac lorry couldn’t get to the road as the village is too small, ditto the concrete lorry. The final straw was when we left to get some shopping only to find the road dug up to our left and right! One set of guests were trapped on our property, the other couldn’t get back."
Karen said she contacted Wildanet's bosses through the company's customer services but claims she had no luck either. She added: "They refused to engage, communicate or help in any way. I was contacted by their department for ‘Positive Impact and Community Liaison’ which I thought was a joke to tell me that there had been an internal review and I would be notified of the result."
She said that a week went past and when she asked for some compensation for the disruption caused to her business and to her guests she was told Wildanet had contacted all relevant authorities such as the parish council and every resident and therefore had done everything they are legally obliged to do.
"I was refused compensation and offered a food box voucher which as the letter never arrived, would be useless anyway," Karen added. "They could have booked a slot in the village hall and explained to the village personally what was about to happen and answer questions. Instead, they hide behind the erroneous view that everyone was informed, which is simply not true.
"I have never known a CEO who isn’t interested in how their business operates and is viewed - except this business - they lead from the bottom, not the top. I can only assume this is because they have vast sums of government money and believe they can simply behave as they wish with no comeback.
"So my question is - how can I try to stop this happening to others? The irony is that we are totally off-grid, and have no WiFi, so I have suffered all this stress and anxiety, and trying desperately to look after my guests for Wildanet’s vanity project. There is no way I would sign up to them now - if this is how they behave when installing, imagine how they will be when trying to offer a service?
"I would like to think there is some way to help other communities who are going to have this misery inflicted on them. Wildanet will do nothing, so what can I do instead?"
It's not the first time Wildanet has angered villages. In October last year locals in Perran Downs, a village located between Penzance and Praa Sands, were left without access to their own driveways for almost two days. At the other end of the county there was a similar tale in Probus when residents were trapped after the internet firm dug up their road without warning.
In 2023, Wildanet was awarded two contracts, totalling £36 million, by the UK government to connect up to 19,250 homes and businesses in South West and Mid Cornwall. This was followed in April 2024 by further investment by the UK government, which saw Wildanet awarded a £41 million contract to roll out new connections to a further 16,800 homes and businesses in East Cornwall, West Cornwall and the island of St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly.
A spokesperson for Wildanet apologised for the disruption, saying it had communicated with all residents and businesses ahead of the work.
They added: "We accept that despite the best efforts to assist by the build team on site, the works impacted people locally, including Karen Wells-West and her guests, and we have apologised for the disruption. However, given the nature and constraints of this installation we believe the construction work was delivered to a high standard and fully in accordance with the permissions in place from Cornwall Council."
The Wildanet spokesperson said it is proud to be bringing gigabit capable broadband to the hardest to reach areas of Cornwall, like Golant, many of which have been ignored previously by the major telecom operators.
They added: "Working in these areas does present a challenge and Wildanet is acutely aware of the impact that a large infrastructure build programme can have on both individuals and communities.
"We try to do everything we can to mitigate and minimise this but it is not possible to completely avoid some disruption as we balance maintaining access with the need to always ensure a safe working environment for operatives and the public, in line with good practice and the works authorisations we receive from Cornwall Council as highways authority.
"In the case of Golant, we began liaising with the parish council on April 5, 2024, almost three months ahead of the works starting (on the June 24, 2024). This began a lengthy period of discussions with the parish council, in-person meetings with the chair of the parish council, letter drops to residents and businesses and several follow-up visits by Wildanet and our contractor.
"We were happy to take on board comments and requests, including a request to accelerate the build to finish two days earlier (Friday the June 28, 2024) to allow the village fete and Castledore Rowing Club events to be held without restrictions."
