Another Yorkshire village is cut off by cable thieves

Councillors in Dunsville, near Doncaster, have been forced to hand out emergency mobile phones to vulnerable residents, who have been told it could be several days before BT can re-connect them.

The theft is the latest in a spate of cable crimes in South Yorkshire. Earlier this year thousands of lines in Lindholme, Stainforth and Arksey went dead for several days at a time.

BT said it would work around the clock to replace the cables stolen from beneath manhole covers on Thorne Road, between Edenthorpe and Dunsville, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Local councillor Mick Glynn said: “We have a load of elderly residents in the village who have now got no contact with the outside world.

“It’s essential to keep these people in contact so I have bought five £20 mobiles with free credit on them which I have distributed to some of them.

“I’ve also checked on some of them and I urge other people in Dunsville to do the same.”

Coun Glynn has urged the police and BT to do more to counter the cable thieves.

He said: “How much is this costing BT? I think they should put alarms on the manhole covers so when they are disturbed the thieves will be caught or deterred.

“The police should also be targeting these unscrupulous scrap dealers who know the metal must be stolen. People’s lives are being put at risk and this should be a crime priority.”

A BT spokesman said: “At this time we have 126 customer faults reported but there could be a lot more who have not reported faults.

“Engineers will work round the clock to complete repairs and although we have no definite completion date as yet we are hopeful they will be complete by the end of the week.”

A police spokesman said around 150m of telephone cable was stolen from near Armthorpe Lane, running along the A18 towards Edenthorpe.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0114 220 2020 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.