PHONE company BT has apologised to around 120 Lydney residents after their telephones were knocked out last week.

Following the failure, which also affected the phones at Lydney Town Council, BT workers were sent out to work on the problem last Sunday, but were present in the town 'for only about an hour' – according to an eye witness.

Church Gardens resident, Mrs Jan Whettam, brought the situation to the attention of the Review, calling in to the offices to express her frustration, and that of her neighbours, at losing her landline signal, and her internet connections.

The difficulties began last week, when phone and internet connections in the centre of Lydney began to fail for BT customers. Then, on Sunday morning, a BT work crew arrived, and set up traffic lights, before dismantling them again soon after.

In a statement issued to the Review, BT said: "Openreach would like to apologise to around 120 people in Lydney affected by water damage to an underground cable, at the junction of Hill Street and High Street.

Three four-way lights were set up to allow access to a manhole to assess the damage. Engineers now need to replace two 175 metre long lengths of cable."

It added: "Engineers are doing all they can to complete this major work, and are scheduled to install the new cabling tonight (Tuesday).

"The cable then needs to be connected at both ends, and it is then hoped to be able to fully restore service by the end of Friday."

•The problems in Lydney mirror failures that have been experienced recently by phone customers in Highnam, where the ducting under the road that carry the BT cables became flooded, and many land lines ceased working.

This happened before Christmas, and the lines were not restored until January 18. This prompted Mark Harper MP to tell those who had been inconvenienced by the failures to claim a refund.

He said: "I understand that BThas now fixed the fault that was affecting many people in and around Highnam. I'm glad that the problem has been fixed.

"My office has been in contact with BT since the issue was first raised with me early in the new year, and understand that the repair works were delayed by flood-related issues. However, it is still disappointing that it took nearly a month for the issues to be resolved.

"People should contact their service suppliers, (whether that is BT or another company), to receive a refund for the period that they didn't have service. Should anyone have difficulties in securing this from their service provider, I am happy to be of assistance. I will also be asking BT to review their infrastructure to help ensure that such extended outages to do not occur again."

A spokesman for BT said: "Two tankers were used to lower water levels while the engineers replaced a large section of faulty underground cable.

"A line closure also had to be arranged with the highways authority. Any customers wishing to claim compensation should contact their service provider."

The company has said that the challenge of the Highnam failures led to an "exceptionally complex repair".