Families fury at cut line

Apr 1 2005 By James Cartledge

Almost a dozen families are suffering from crossed lines after bungling phone bosses left them cut off for more than three weeks.

Householders said they could have learned to communicate by smoke signals in the time it is taking British Telecom to fix a damaged underground cable.

Eleven homes in Whitecroft Road, Sheldon, lost their phone lines on March 3. But families are still waiting to be reconnected.

BT is blaming problems with tree roots near the cable for the lengthy repair time and said it would compensation after repairs were finished.

But angry residents’ spokesman, retired Rover worker Brian Allen, said that was no consolation to families “cut off from the outside world”.

“The service we have had is terrible,” he said.

“People are waiting for important phone calls. We know callers are leaving messages but we can’t listen to them,” added the 65-year-old.

A BT spokesman admitted repairs had taken longer than first thought and pledged residents would be

compensated for their inconvenience. But he could not say when engineers would finish the job.

“We are having to relay underground ducting and cabling. “It’s now a much bigger job than it was,” he said.

“We can’t say exactly when it will be finished because we don’t know whether we are going to hit any complications.

“We will be happy to talk with residents about compensation.”