ON March 30 a storm felled a tree across Carver Hill, Norton Canon, severing the overhead telephone line and it took BT/Openreach 11 days to restore the line.

During this time we, and some 30 houses, were without telephone or broadband, and we live in a poor mobile reception area.

There were two main issues that the community here had to deal with –the length of time that it took BT/Openreach to rectify the problem, and the totally inadequate communication, specifically the lack of updates.

We are a rural community and some elderly people were worried about not being able to contact emergency services should the need arise. Others are trying to run businesses from home, and I find this poor response and glacial rectification simply unacceptable in 2015.

I suspect BT/Openreach engineers are too busy with the Fastershire fibre-optic rollout to be bothered with a small number of inconvenienced rural residents.

STEPHEN TURNER Norton Canon