A resident of Hatherton who, like others in that area, has been without land-line or broadband since 11th December, has been in contact with BT Openreach's chief executive.
A response has been received from the chief executive's office which, we trust, will mean action takes place very soon as it has been a difficult and dispiriting time for those residents trying to get some effective response.
It seems as if their telephone lines were cut off as part of the work to install high speed fibre broadband to Audlem, a service ironically not available to the residents affected for some time as they are too far away from a BT box.
Jean Stainthorpe also had BBC Radio Stoke travel out to interview her last week – after all, they couldn't telephone her on her landline – and it is hoped that media coverage and the following letter will do the much needed trick now that the chief executive is aware of the issue.
Jean's letter said:
Dear Mr Garner
I am writing to you in your capacity as Chief Executive of BT Openreach to appeal to you to expedite the resolution of the problem with phone lines in my area.
I and fellow residents have been without phone lines and internet connection for four weeks, since Thursday 11 December.
We live in a rural area in south Cheshire with very poor mobile phone reception, unable to receive voice calls in most of the properties.
Residents in this area for whom telecommunications are essential are a mix of self-employed people working from home, students, school children, retired and elderly; we live a round trip of five miles from the nearest village where (unsecured) wifi is available in public places, involving us in loss of business, great inconvenience, expense and inability to carry out financial transactions.
You surely appreciate lack of internet access is a huge problem for us.
We have repeatedly been advised of dates for restoration of the service which have not been met and have been unable to make contact with an individual able to progress this matter.
I beg you to pursue this matter with the utmost urgency.
Regards
Jean Stainthorpe
Detailed contact and address details were included in the letter but we have excluded those for security reasons.
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