Telephone cable snagged in a tree

[Buncelr]

My telephone cable is snagged in a tree following recent bad weather. There is no longer any slack in the cable and the tree branches are bending it in a 45° angle. 

I called openreach to report it as it is a safety risk. If that branch drops any lower or snaps, my phone line is going to snap. They said to contact the council to report it for the tree to be cut, they aren't open till Monday! I told them this and the risk that this issue posses, but they repeated to contact the council. 

Is there anything else I can do, or someone else I can contact? 

P.s. I tried to post a photo but it says the file is too big.

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @Buncelr   Are you a BT Retail customer?

[Buncelr]

I'm a BT customer for a private household. 

[imjolly]

Who owns the tree - neighbour or council?

[Buncelr]

It's the council. I put a online query in for them to pick up on Monday already 

[imjolly]

Then it is the council who need to help you with the tree and openreach will only become involved if and when you have a problem with your connection and have reported fault to BT

[iniltous]

Openreach are no going to visit preemptively and do anything, there isn’t really a mechanism to do this , if the branch is cut by the council before it breaks the cable great , unfortunately if the branch isn’t cut before it breaks the cable then all you can do is report it as and when it disrupts your service and the cable will be replaced .

[chrisjp]

I guess that it's true that Openreach won't do anything until the cable is actually broken, but that doesn't make it a sensible policy in my view.
If it's obvious that unless something is done, the cable will snap and service to the house will be lost, so why can't Openreach take preventative action? A stitch in time......

[gg30340]

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@chrisjp wrote:
I guess that it's true that Openreach won't do anything until the cable is actually broken, but that doesn't make it a sensible policy in my view.
If it's obvious that unless something is done, the cable will snap and service to the house will be lost, so why can't Openreach take preventative action? A stitch in time......

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Depends on which side of the fence you are on. Why can't the council take preventative action to prevent the cable from breaking and a bill from Openreach to pay for the repair of a broken cable that one of their trees caused. 

[Buncelr]

I've reported it to the council for them to pick up on Monday, but knowing them it won't be sorted for a week or 2. 

It's a shame that openreach don't have any preventative action knowing the risk involved. The cable runs across a small greenspace, that is frequently visited by children/wildlife/horses/dog walkers, next to a busy crossroads and highly populated footpaths that are on route to 3 located schools. Not to mention the pub by it with drunken idiots at night. It's a recipe for disaster. And selfishly, disruption to my services if it snaps.