CityFibre apologises to East End residents after ‘trashing’ streets

Residents in Wellhouse complained a play area had been torn up with tyre tracks and a hole in the road had been left only partially covered.

Street clutter was blocking pavements making it difficult for disabled and elderly people to move around. Community representatives said the issues had been ongoing for around a month.

It is understood CityFibre, the company behind the work, is now ensuring the streets are tidied up.

David Cannon, the firm’s area manager for Glasgow, said: “We’re sorry to learn about these concerns as we always endeavour to manage any disruption as best we can and limit the period of time we stay in each area.

“We also work closely with our build and local authority partners to ensure we follow required site regulations at all times, that agreed work permits are in place and that checks and controls are adhered to.”

He added: “We are pleased to confirm that our build partner has now carried out work in the Wellhouse area to ensure that reinstatement works are completed to the high standards we expect.”

Mr Cannon also said CityFibre is investing £270m to “deliver a full fibre network that will future-proof Glasgow’s digital capabilities for decades to come”.

“We are grateful for the continued support we’ve received from the community and ask that they continue to bear with us while we deliver these essential works,” he added.

Local councillors, Alex Kerr, SNP, and Kevin Lalley, Labour, had contacted CityFibre to raise the concerns of residents. Community representatives, including Wellhouse & Queenslie Community Council chair Eddie Andrews, have also been pushing for the issues to be resolved.

Cllr Kerr said he was delighted CityFibre had started cleaning up the area. “The chair of Wellhouse Community Council and I inspected the ongoing works and were happy to see some progress being made by teams working on behalf of City Fibre,” he added.

“There still remains more work to be done however. In my discussions with them CityFibre have made a commitment to resolving these issues as soon as possible.”

Cllr Lalley also confirmed workers had been out over the weekend to tidy up the area. He said he had visited the site yesterday and all the pavements were now clear.

However, the councillor said “prevention is better than a cure” and he hopes future work won’t be as disruptive to residents.

Roads impacted include Balado Road, Wellhouse Crescent and Wellhouse Gardens.