To be honest when I was a CST I rarely had to deal with stuff like that as it was always usually dealt with at Survey/Planning Stage.
As far as I can remember they can run cables over private property as long as:
They don’t need to access your land to do so.
The cable is a minimum of 3m from the ground.
The cable is 2m from any building. I assume that's to the side as well as above it.
The cable doesn’t interfere with an existing business operation.
So they couldn’t put a cable 3m off the ground over an existing farm track where you’ve got Combine Harvesters coming in and out. Also it’s existing business operations. If say 10 years down the line you opened a grain store at the back of your house and trucks suddenly needed to access it you would still be liable for Repayments on a Network Rearrangement Order, aka you’d have to pay to have the lines moved or rerouted.
Also the business clause can be very difficult one. I remember years ago someone who owned a Hotel that overlooked the sea. Openreach put up a cable span between two existing poles, which then obscured said sea view. How much I don’t know, a standard Drop Wire 11/12/15 was about 5 or 6mm in diameter so it couldn’t have obscured it that much. The Hotel was complaining it affected their Business as guests couldn’t get a, ‘good’ sea view photo.
Never did find out the outcome of it but the Hotel was threatening to take Openreach to court. Whether they managed to find a Solicitor willing to take on the case I don’t know.
