An “eyesore” telecoms box installed on a Bath street has upset neighbours who warn it has “ruined” the look of their historic street.

Sean Alexander woke to find out the “eyesore of a cabinet” had been installed in front of his historic garden wall in the Larkhall area of the city. He described it as a “nasty piece of modern street furniture in front of an 1800s chancery wall.”

Mr Alexander, an artist who designed the album cover for Paul Weller’s 2002 record Illumination, warned: “They have just stuck it slap bang in the middle with no regard for the aesthetic and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

He said: “Bath and North East Somerset Council have said it’s on the public highway and that there is no public consultation. And Virgin Media have refused to move it - even though we’ve offered them a space on the back of our own property.

“We are extremely upset that it has ruined the look of our house and our beautiful street in Larkhall.

“Everybody that walks past says ‘b**dy hell. Why have they put that there? It’s such an eyesore.’”

He added that he needed to do work on the wall and would now need to dig up some of his flowerbed to access it from the other side. He said: “There are so many other places they could have put it if they had asked.”

The Virgin Media cabinet was installed in St Saviour’s Road as part of the rollout of faster fibre broadband in the area. Although Mr Alexander is not a Virgin Media customer, he said: “We want people to have fibre, but just with a lot more respect to the aesthetic of Larkhall and Bath being a World Heritage Site.”

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said: “We’re currently expanding our network to bring ultrafast services to homes and businesses in the Bath area.

“We have spoken regularly with Mr Alexander and have explained that we received all necessary permissions from Bath & North East Somerset Council before installing this cabinet.”