Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Arundel & South Downs has raised concerns for vulnerable residents in rural communities after Ofcom and the UK government agreed to let BT switch off landline services leaving only broadband services available.
Steve McAuliffe, Arun District Councillor, is leading calls for BT to engage with villages and vulnerable rural residents over the planned analogue switch off.
“In many of our small villages and isolated homes across the Arundel & South Downs Constituency, the broadband signal isn’t currently reliable enough,” says McAuliffe. “Many residents across the constituency completely rely on landlines and do not have a mobile phone or a broadband connection. We’re leaving these people uncertain and concerned about how they will raise help in an emergency.”
BT has told broadband providers that the landline network will end by December 2025. It is unclear what this means for customers in areas with poor signal. McAuliffe has spoken with affected residents in many villages and the overwhelming message has been that before any switch off is decided, BT need to recognise that the postcode system of determining which areas have good broadband, and therefore marked for switch off, is not a suitable and reliable method for many areas.
“We are told that the broadband signal in the village is good,” one resident and Parish Councillor for the village of Slindon, Andrew Foakes, told McAuliffe. “But this is based on an assessment of the postcode. The postcode covering the village also covers areas 2 miles from here that do have good signal. Ours though, here in the village, is intermittent and patchy with some houses not having any broadband signal at all.”
According to McAuliffe, a further problem is that many villages in the constituency do not have reliable electricity networks. Extended blackouts when trees fall on overhead supply cables are a regular occurance. So even in areas where there is a reasonable broadband connection, it won’t work when the electricity is out for longer than an hour.
“We need BT to engage with affected villages and homes and explain how vulnerable people will be safeguarded and how those working from home will be able to run their businesses after 2025,” says McAuliffe. “So far, we haven’t even been able to contact a BT project manager to explain the issues with the postcode system and the exacerbating impacts of intermittent power cuts.”
Whilst it is technically possible for people to convert properties so that they have back-up systems, conversion can be complicated and expensive so McAuliffe believes it is unfair that customers are expected to foot the bill and manage the complexity of converting their homes and businesses without financial support or technical help.
McAuliffe concludes: “This is not a reasonable way to treat people and I want BT managers to come to the affected villages to positively engage with the residents well before any homes are switched off and left unable to contact friends and loved ones should they need to.”
More about Steve
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Arundel & South Downs, Cllr Steve McAuliffe is an ex-British Army Air Corps soldier whose 20-year career in ecology and environmental management consultancy has spanned both industry and politics. He represents Arundel & Walberton on Arun District Council, is a board member of South Downs National Park, and recently completed his Masters, focusing on protected species legislation and anthropogenic impact mitigation. McAuliffe has a solid track record of delivering on campaign promises demonstrating hard work and an ability to get things done. A key campaign pledge at last May’s local elections was to prevent the development of an AirBnB ‘party house’ in River Road, Arundel. By September McAuliffe got the plan scrapped following significant work to discredit the financial basis of the project, the erroneous income predictions and unrealistically optimistic build costs.