Viral TikTok row after workmen dig up Milton Keynes garden

A woman’s row with her neighbours went viral after workers dug up part of her garden to lay a broadband cable for the house next door.

About a million TikTok viewers have watched doorbell camera footage posted by Melanie Abbott, from Milton Keynes, who returned home to find Openreach had dug a trench along the edge of her front lawn.

Her neighbour, who said she had apologised, told the BBC she was expecting a narrow trench to be dug by hand within her boundary – not a much wider one on Ms Abbott’s lawn.

Openreach, which is replacing copper cables with full fibre connections, has been approached for comment.

In the footage, posted on TikTok, Ms Abbott can be heard accusing her neighbour, who did not want to be named, of allowing the trench to be dug without asking permission.

Ms Abbott has complained to Openreach and said she will seek legal advice.

The neighbour told the BBC she had planned to speak to Ms Abbott to explain the new cable would need to go under her lawn.

“They [Openreach] should have been coming out on the 26 January.

“They turned up on the 26 November without any notification,” she said.

“They’d already started doing the job before we even realised they were here…”

She said because “the copper wiring is getting turned off” she had “no choice but to have the full fibre put in”.

“They had no choice but to go on her garden,” she added.