TEN households in Bream have been without a telephone and broadband since last Tuesday (November 22) when an oak tree fell and brought down phone lines in Bowson Road.

Resident Tom Bint said: “The tree fell in the morning, demolishing a telegraph pole and blocking the road. Although the police were there promptly to close the road until the tree could be made safe, which happened at around lunchtime, no one has been out to fix the telegraph pole. It’s now over a week since it happened.

“A neighbour who was affected phoned BT straight away, but they told him that as he was a Talk Talk customer he needed to contact them instead. The mobile signal in this area is practically non-existent and most of those affected are retired. With the internet down as well, they have really been left with no means of communication.

“Our houses are opposite woodland and I think the rain had washed away soil and exposed the roots of the tree causing it to fall.”

A spokesperson from BT said: “Engineers from Openreach – who install and maintain the local network on behalf of all communications providers – are having to replace a telephone pole after it was brought down by a tree.

“It is extremely regrettable when Openreach experiences any accidental damage to its network. In such cases, every effort is made to restore affected services as quickly as possible, which is what engineers are doing in this case.

“Openreach apologies for the inconvenience caused to the customers affected and will continue to update communications providers about the progress of this repair, so they in turn can update their own customers.”