OPENREACH has apologised to a resident as the disruption caused by their street works meant she could not get “a single second of sleep”.

The firm carried out some repairs on the evening of January 10 outside an address in Norton Fitzwarren but the works lasted “through the night” when they were only meant to last half an hour.

The woman, who does not want to be named, lives on Morse Road.

She said she and her partner could not get “a single minute of sleep” and she was “in tears” due to the prolonged disruption.

The woman also added that “they left a complete mess”.

Somerset County Gazette:
The area where the works were carried out

She said: “What happened is that on January 10 at around 9.30pm Openreach workers were working and using concrete outside.

“My partner asked them ‘why’ and they said it ‘would take half an hour’ but they carried on until about 6.30am all through the night .

“My partner went out several times during the night because we couldn’t sleep and they said they were allowed to carry on. You need sleep to function and it was noisy with the vibrations and it took a couple of days to get back to normal.

“We literally didn’t get a single second of sleep and we both have full-time jobs so we had to carry on.

“It sounds so dramatic, but I’m still in shock this could happen. I was in tears around 2am as I just couldn’t sleep."

Somerset County Council said they understood that "any work involving noise would be carried out before 10pm".

The woman added: “They said to my partner that they could not do it in the daytime because it was such a busy road but they could have done it because the road was shut.”

The company said the works, which involved excavation, were part of a “£15 billion investment to upgrade the broadband infrastructure”.

An Openreach spokesperson said: “We’d like to apologise to residents for any disruption caused by the street works done in Norton Fitzwarren on 10 and 11 January. Our request for the permit should have included permission to excavate and we discovered retrospectively that this was not the case. “We’re sorry that we didn’t meet our own high standards for street works on this occasion; we’ve have implemented new procedures to avoid the same mistakes happening again.

The work was part of our £15 billion investment to upgrade the UK’s broadband infrastructure.”

A Somerset County Council spokesperson said: “We have taken the matter up with Openreach as the responsibility to work in a considerate manner and not to cause public harm or distress sits firmly with Openreach’s contractors.

“We can also confirm that Somerset County Council did not request night working at this location.

“Our clear understanding from Openreach, as stated in the work permit, was that any work involving noise would be carried out before 10pm.

“We do our utmost to ensure any disruption by contractors is kept to a minimum. If residents have concerns about unreasonable levels of noise outside normal working hours they should contact the council and we will take the matter up with the contractor concerned.”