A ROAD crash that brought down a telegraph pole has left residents cut off by phone for more than two weeks.
The accident, on the A376, at Lympstone,near Exeter, sent the pole crashing down leaving the line entangled in a small hedgerow tree.
Since then the phones have been dead for some eight families living at nearby Gulliford Cottages and Gulliford House.
BT have apologised and promised to expedite the repair but Brian Northcott, who lives in one of the cottages said: " It is astonishing that after all this time and all the inquiries and requests that we have made, we are still without telephones or internet services.
"There are a number of elderly people living here and they could need to use the telephone in an emergency. There is no land line and the mobile phone signal is very poor, particularly in the bad weather.
"Nobody seems able to give us an answer as to when the service will be restored. There is some ridiculous health and safety aspect because of the tree which is barely a sapling and a question about erecting temporary lighs on the main road to allow work to be done.
Mr Northcott said BT had responded by saying it needed Highways Agency permission to erect temporary traffic lights.
However a Devon Highways spokesman said BT were legally able carry out works on the public highway using temporary traffic signals without our prior approval, providing the work is deemed to be urgent.
According to the New Roads & Street Works Act, 1991, by which all statutory undertakers must comply, 'urgent' works include "preventing or putting an end to an unplanned interruption of any supply of service provided by the undertaker".
Some work was started to fix the fault, but ceased before the lines were reconnected to the cottages.
A spokesman for BT said: "We are sorry for the delay. This is a complex repair involving the replacement of a pole, repair of overhead lines and traffic management on a busy road.
"We are expediting the work as quickly as possible.
"We have looked into the possibility of providing temporary service for the customers affected, but unfortunately this isn`t possible."
