The Best Guide for the Neston Area

Police seek witnesses following BT cable theft

Nearly four hundred homes and businesses in the Neston area were left without telephone lines due to the actions of thieves.

On Thusday, a BT spokesperson said: "Around 390 customers are without service after thieves stole two sections of BT cable in the early hours of this morning.

"Engineers are working to reconnect those affected, but it is too early to say when this work will be completed.

"It is regrettable when we suffer any kind of third party damage to our network. BT apologises for any inconvenience. Our priority is always to restore services to those affected as quickly as we can, which is what we are doing in this case."

UPDATE

Received from BT at 09:48 on Friday February 18th:

"We will be working through the weekend and hope to have everyone affected reconnected by close of play on Monday."

UPDATE - Saturday February 19th:

Many phone lines are now restored, and BT hope to have the remainder back in order by no later than 5pm Monday, February 21st.

According to Cheshire police, the theft was reported to them on Thursday, when it was discovered that thieves had broken into the telecoms exchange at the junction of Park Street and Leighton Road, Neston, and stolen around 10m of cable.

Inspector Peter Case, of Cheshire police, said: "This incident has consequences beyond the theft itself - loss of telephone lines can have significant impact for residents and businesses."

If you saw anyone behaving suspiciously in the Leighton Road area overnight on Wednesday, February 16, and Thursday, February 17, contact Neston police on 0845 458 0000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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Comments

stan e

At 13:30 on 18th February 2011, stan e commented:

makes you wonder just how considerate these low life thieves are stealing bt cables and thus affecting our town thanks to there actions!! 1 word-scum!! and i see the cheshire building society is today(18th feb)closed.anybody know what is going on?

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lorraine b

At 14:19 on 18th February 2011, lorraine b commented:

the cheshire is very possibly not open because of the phone lines being down, after all their computers might be run off them and so there fore can not enter any ones accounts, i know a couple of the banks have been closed for that reason.. and also the post office cant do the electric keys or gas same reason the phone lines are down ... total scum the ones that have done this and i hope that they catch them, my mum is by herself and her phone is off, she is getting a bit panicky.... i hope when they catch them that they name and shame them !!!!!

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lal

At 14:53 on 18th February 2011, lal commented:

i agree total scum, i've got a very poorly little boy and had to take him out to the doctors due to their phones being out of use, these low lifes have obviously not thought about the repercussions of what they have done and how it would affect businesses, and homes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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,

At 20:07 on 18th February 2011, , commented:

This is a growing problem across the whole UK and very big in cities in particular.

As Eastern economies boom the demand for raw materials such as copper and steel has pushed the price sky high so naturally its scrap value has rocketed too.

Thieves target cabling and pipework just to "weigh in" for scrap. You can literally walk into a scrap merchant now with carrier bags of copper and get real cash ! Its also brought back the traditional "rag and bone" men to the streets as its a profitable business once again.

Unfortunately the cost to businesses such as those in Neston will be significantly more than the value of the cables themselves.

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MD

At 13:26 on 20th February 2011, MD commented:

Why have BT not got the exchange alarmed through to the local Police station? or have they, and our "Boyz in Blue" don't like who they may meet in the the dark. Makes me feel very insecure living close to the exchange.

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SHric

At 13:31 on 23rd February 2011, SHric commented:

All BT exchanges are alarmed back to BT's own 24 hr control room - but there is some dependency on BT employees who use the building to operate the system properly. No doubt BT will be investigating why this system didn't work. After all the effect on the town could have been much worse.
Incidentally I have often noticed that the gate is left open at the exchange, perhaps BT will take more care of this in the future.

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Tony

At 14:24 on 23rd February 2011, Tony commented:

Seems to me the police arent trying too hard to solve this one. I have friends who live in the weint right next to the exchange and the police havent even been round to ask them if they saw anything.

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mighty m

At 20:09 on 23rd February 2011, mighty m commented:

Tony , I too have friends who live in the weint and apparently the local pcso went around the same day that it happened so perhaps your friends where not at home when they called, but i hope if your friends did know something then perhaps they would not wait to be called upon by the police and ring them up themselves.

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Tony

At 09:47 on 24th February 2011, Tony commented:

ok m, but they dont work in neston and theyre phones were ok so they didnt even know about the problem until they read about it three days later on here. so was it beyond the ken of the pcos to put a note in the door or something?? I also want to know why the place wasnt surrounded by police within minutes. must have been an alarm on it??

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mighty m

At 19:37 on 24th February 2011, mighty m commented:

Totally agree with you Tony, the Police should have been there, but by what I have seen BT don't exactly help themselves leaving gates open, no CCTV and is it alarmed? its all very well putting everything on the police's doorstep but we have to not make it so easy for the theives to strike.

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AndrewR

At 18:09 on 27th February 2011, AndrewR commented:

As a resident of Poplar Weint, I would just like to point out that the BT Exchange on Park Street is a 24/7 accessible business. We know this because we have been disturbed in the past by the arrivals/departures and loud conversations of the various sub contractors who use this building at all sorts of early hours in the morning! In actual fact the thieves were quieter than the people who normally acces the building. We did not hear anything because nothing seemed different that particular night. I do hope these people are caught.

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