RESIDENTS of more than 20 households in the Morchard Bishop area who have been without landlines and broadband since April 15 have written to MP Mel Stride for help to put pressure on Openreach to move more swiftly to fix a repair.

Wendy Vere, one of the residents affected, wrote to Openreach and Mel Stride: “We are writing to you as ourselves and another 20 households in EX17 6RX have been completely cut off since the night of April 15 when a lightning strike took out our landlines, broadband and copper lines.

“The response (or lack thereof) from the various ISP’s (predominantly BT) and apparent systemic lack of communication between the ISPs and Openreach is staggering.

The affected households contain multiple individuals over 70 – some in their 90s – children and infants; folk with complex ongoing medical problems and rural businesses.

“In and of itself the line damage wouldn’t cause me to write to MPs, journalists and local news but the very poor/total lack of mobile phone reception in the area leaves us extremely vulnerable and the landline is still king.

“We are trying to run a farming business here and like every other business this requires a constant and reliable internet connection.

“We have to drive daily to the village (six mile round trip) to use a secure wifi for internet banking, register cattle passports and submit VAT returns – all tasks that we have no option but to do online.

“All the households have confirmed that the fault has been reported by them and yet we have no communication from Openreach as to estimate of work completion – or indeed what they intend to do, or even a start date. One household was told by their ISP that it would be completed by April 31!

“It has become apparent that due to the geographical limitations of the area and distance from the exchange the provider is simply dragging their heels hoping that these rural properties will either voluntarily pay to upgrade to fibre (cost = £20,000!!) or install Starlink or similar – no guarantee of any Airband type digital connection working in any case due to the poor mobile coverage.

“Having a copper landline is not some indulgence or quirk in these rural areas – it is an absolute necessity as we have no other choice.

“What happens in a medical emergency? Or banking?

Two cases of overdrafts being used already as guess what? the text to mobiles informing of overdraft was not received. And trying to run our businesses has caused incalculable anxiety and stress.

“In summary, this is another example of a rural community being badly let down by a large national company. It is nearly impossible to talk to a real person as by the time you have navigated the bot system you have then lost the mobile connection you had.

“The latest information coming from one ISP is that the fault should be rectified on May 9 – that is over three and a half weeks since it was first reported.

“Thank you for looking into this for us, we all feel that for a so-called communications company Openreach deserves to be hauled over the coals of the ombudsman or whatever for this ‘service’.

Local resident Carol Watson described Openreach’s lack of action as “poor” and said that the only way she can have contact with the outside world is by using the internet at the village hall or The London Inn.

Openreach have been asked for a statement but as yet nothing has been forthcoming.