Residents in Loosley Row are ‘up in arms’ after being left without landlines or broadband for over a week.

BT was alerted to a tree branch resting on an aerial cable by a resident, but the branch was not removed in time.

The branch eventually snapped the phone line on Friday, October 24.

Around 30 properties in Lower Road have been told they have to wait until November 14 for it to be fixed.

Professor Nigel Henbest, of Lower Road said: "I called BT telling them it was dangerous, but no-one came out before it severed the cable.

"It is affecting businesses for the people who work freelance and from home, but what concerns me more is that there are elderly people in the village who rely on the phone, who have been cut off from the world by this."

BT removed the loose end of the cable, but has since delayed the date of the repair work until November 14. A BT spokesperson confirmed that the aerial cable was damaged by a lorry.

He said: "Approximately 70 metres of aerial cable needs to be replaced. The repair work is complicated as the cable is used on joint pole with an electricity company and care needs to be taken on safety.

"The work is complex and time-consuming and Openreach engineers are working as fast as they can to restore service as soon as possible.

"It is regrettable when Openreach suffers any accidental damage to its network. Our priority is always to restore services as quickly as possible which is what we are doing in this case.

"Customers may wish to contact their service provider to arrange for incoming calls to be diverted to an alternative number while the repairs are being carried out."

Despite this, Professor Henbest claims to have only seen an engineer on site once in twelve days.

He said: "I think it is unacceptable. BT just doesn’t seem to care. It is just not on."