Phone lines down in street for 10 weeks

Residents claim they have been without telephone lines for up to 10 weeks in their Black Country street after cables were damaged during work to install a footpath in the area.

People in Brenton Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, say they are "frustrated" at not being able to use their landlines since before Christmas.

A cable was damaged in three or four places during work to construct a concrete footpath and spruce-up grass verges in the street.

Terry Riley, who has lived in Brenton Road for 53 years, has been unable to use his telephone for nine weeks, while neighbour Dennis Harper has been affected for 10 weeks.

Former technical director at an engineering company Mr Riley, aged 79, said: "It's been very difficult. Things like car insurance and house insurance have all been due and we can't ring up. It's also very expensive to keep using our mobile phones. I can't understand why it has taken so long to fix."

BT spokeswoman Emma Tennant said the fault had been reported in December.

"One of our cables and the ducting around it had been accidentally damaged in three or four different places by contractors working for another organisation," she said.

"We were on site within two days to survey the damage and evaluate what repairs needed to be done. The work was due to be completed in January but was delayed due to bad weather."

Ms Tennant said the company had needed permission from Wolverhampton City Council to agree when they could be on site.

She said services should be restored by the end of today. "We apologise for the delay in completing the repairs. It is extremely regrettable when we suffer any kind of third party damage to our network and having been working to restore services as quickly as we can."

Gurdip Thandi, spokesman for Wolverhampton City Council, said: "Upon the discovery of the problem, we invited BT to carry out whatever work is necessary to fix the damaged cable and understand some repairs have already been undertaken."