Councillor’s apology call to Openreach after villagers are left without phone connections for two weeks

An East Riding of Yorkshire councillor is calling on BT Openreach to offer a full apology and a detailed explanation as to why an entire village was left without telephone and internet connection for more than two weeks.
Cllr Mike Stathers (foreground) is pictured with with some of the residents of Londesborough. Photo submitted.Cllr Mike Stathers (foreground) is pictured with with some of the residents of Londesborough. Photo submitted.
Cllr Mike Stathers (foreground) is pictured with with some of the residents of Londesborough. Photo submitted.

An East Riding of Yorkshire councillor is calling on BT Openreach to offer a full apology and a detailed explanation as to why an entire village was left without telephone and internet connection for more than two weeks.

Londesborough, sitting at the top of the Yorkshire Wolds, was cut off when a telegraph pole on the edge of the village was knocked over, thought to have been caused by a vehicle collision, on Monday, November 22.

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This left every household without a landline telephone or internet link.

Now, more than two weeks on, the line will hopefully be re-connected tomorrow (Wednesday, December 8).

Wolds Weighton councillor Mike Stathers said: “To leave a village without such a vital connection is an absolute disgrace and I call on BT to give a full apology and explanation to every single resident of Londesborough.

“They have not truly considered the impact such a disconnection has had on the life of the village.

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“One person, who operates his business from home, stands to lose a six-figure sum in potential sales by not being able to attend a vital webinar.

Others were worried that they had no way of contacting health services in case of an emergency, and schoolchildren could not complete their online tasks.

“We haven’t had six feet of snow. We haven’t had gales of 90 mph and as far as I know we haven’t had a national strike so why has this village been left disconnected for so long.

“Openreach needs to come up with some answers and I will be taking this up with officers at ERYC.”

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A spokesperson for Openreach said: “We are really sorry for the disruption here. Our engineers are working flat out in a number of communities at the moment, including repairing damage from the recent storms.

“They’re doing their best to work as quickly and safely as possible. We’ve put a new pole in place here following the road accident and we’re trying to arrange for people to be reconnected as soon as possible.

“Due to the nature of the damage, we are unable to put a temporary service in place, but we hope to have an update very shortly.”