Shropshire villagers' Christmas fears over gale-hit phone line

Residents around Neen Savage, north of Cleobury Mortimer, are now worried they may face Christmas with no telephone or internet connection after a telegraph pole came down in the recent high winds.

The connection was severed when the cables came down in the middle of November. But nearly one month on the service has still not been restored, which Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Councillor for the Cleobury area, has branded "disgusting".

Neen Savage resident Peter Hallett said he is concerned some elderly people in the village may be completely cut off from the outside world. He said: "The loss of a single telegraph pole in the parish of Neen Savage has left up to 100 subscribers with no telephone since November 16.

"Many of these, some elderly, have no mobile signal at their homes and are therefore completely cut off. BT has failed to effect repairs and reneged on each proposed repair date up to this point. The latest is December 18, more than a month since the incident that felled the pole.

"Judging from BT's record to date there is now a very real prospect that a large proportion of its customers in this parish will be forced to spend Christmas without a telephone."

Mr Hallett said he has taken to communicating via e-mail as he can't get mobile signal where he lives – though his internet connection had been self-installed.

"We live little more than 25 miles from the centre of Birmingham," he added.

Councillor Butler added: "One of my members of staff is affected, she hasn't had a phone line for about three weeks. The service she is getting from Openreach is disgusting. Once again we find because we're in a rural area, we're getting a second class service."

Mr Hallet, who is in his late 70s, said

he had written to BT Group chairman Sir Michael Rake, Philip Dunne MP and the Ombudsman.

He said his wife was partially sighted so could not drive, adding: "If anything happens to me, as is not unusual for people of my age, she will have no means of summoning aid or getting me to hospital, unless she can persuade one of the neighbours to help – if they happen to be in. Even then, one has heart trouble and also carries an epipen because he is subject to anaphylactic shock. He has been told to ring 999 in case of difficulties. He also has no phone and no mobile signal. I suspect that there are more than a few others in even worse predicaments.

"As to the local businesses involved, they are almost at the end of their tethers."

Nobody from BT was available for comment.