Row becomes viral after workers excavate neighbor's lawn

A disagreement between a woman and her neighbours captured online attention after workers dug up part of her garden to install a broadband cable for the adjacent property. The incident, recorded on a doorbell camera and shared by Melanie Abbott from Milton Keynes, has been viewed by around one million people on TikTok.

Ms Abbott returned home to find a trench dug along the edge of her front lawn by Openreach, the company upgrading local networks from copper to full fibre connections. Her neighbour, who apologised for the confusion, told the BBC she had expected a narrow hand-dug trench within her own property, not a wider excavation crossing into Ms Abbott's garden.

Footage posted on TikTok shows Ms Abbott confronting both her neighbour and the workers. She can be heard accusing her neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, of permitting the trench to be dug without her consent. Ms Abbott has lodged a complaint with Openreach and plans to seek legal advice.

Speaking to the BBC, the neighbour explained that she intended to discuss the cable installation with Ms Abbott beforehand. "They were supposed to come on 26 January," she said, "but arrived on 26 November without notifying us. They started the work before we even realized they were there." She added that due to the phasing out of copper wiring, the full fibre installation was unavoidable, though it necessitated crossing Ms Abbott's lawn.

Author: Sophia Brooks