We moved into our Victorian terraced cottage about six months ago and have slowly been getting to grips with all the hidden delights.
The house is in a conservation area which is a bit of a joke, as various sets of owners have blatantly flouted the can's and cant's, of what you are allowed to do to the front of the property.
The front of the house is a tangle of electric, telephone and aerial wires. I have noticed that on the majority of the terraced houses in the village there is one discreet electric and phone cable that runs up the central house, and then along under the eaves either way to and into the other houses in the terrace.
I have had an electrician (local) who came, did a lot of head shaking, sucking his teeth and saying "previous owners eh?" All he would do was poke about a bit, check which wires were live and change a transformer for a spot in the bathroom.
I explained that I would like the wires on the front tidied up and all defunct and unnecessary ones removed. My house is the one with the main cable from which all the others run - slap bang just above door level!
He told me that the cables are the property of the utility companies and that he couldn't do it.
I want nice discreet wiring like everyone else 
all the other houses in the street have short back and sides, mine has dreads!
So my question is - how and who do I get to do it ? Is he talking a load of flannel?