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Scottish pensioners rage at Virgin cabinet blocking their view

Who needs sunlight when you've got Netflix?

Scottish pensioners are up in arms that Virgin Media has had the audacity to build a huge cabinet outside their homes in East Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, which is reported to be blocking their light.

The OAPs have been fighting Virgin Media since the 5ft boxes were installed in their street in January, according to the Daily Mail.

The installation is part of Virgin's £3bn Project Lightning network expansion, intended to connect 4 million premises to its national ultrafast broadband network by 2019 with speeds of 350Mbps.

But the octogenarians seemed less than impressed at that prospect.

Rosemary Ferguson, 82, told the paper: "It completely blocks out any light from coming into the house, and we now have no outlook at all.

"We were never advised they were going to be put here, but apparently, that's because they don't need planning permission to put them up.

"We have been fighting this since January and have just hit a brick wall the whole way."

Local councillor Danny Devlin, who was contacted about the problem, said: "Virgin Media are a law unto themselves.

"They don't need planning permission but they would usually speak to the council about the installation of these boxes. However, in this case, they didn't."

He said the boxes should be removed and Virgin should be made to go through the planning process with the council.

"As a gesture of common sense, I would expect Virgin to take the boxes down and give these pensioners back the view they had before."

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said: "We endeavour to minimise disruption and we apologise for any inconvenience to residents.

"In the case of the cabinets in Lowndes Court, the council was notified prior to Virgin Media installing the cabinets and the correct procedures were followed." ®

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