RESIDENTS living in a Southampton street have been left without a phoneline for more than two weeks.

BT say they have received 250 reports of faults in Paynes Road, Freemantle, which have developed due to flooding.

Because of this people connected to BT in the area have been left without their landlines and Internet since December 29.

Freemantle Academy Primary School has redirected its landline to a mobile to deal with calls.

Resident Pat Calloway, 70, has contacted BT numerous times and written two letters. She was given two different times for the lines to be back but each time her landline was still dead.

She said: “There are some people here who don’t have mobiles and for them their landline is a lifeline. What if the doctors wanted to call them, or their family?”

The problem has meant that Robert Shannon, 54, from Blackfield has not been able to call his mum Joyce Purkess, 98, who lives in Lake House.

He said: “The landline is really important for her as she does not use a mobile and this is the first year I was unable to call her to say happy new year.”

Local city councillor Jeremy Moulton, who represents the Freemantle ward, said he is concerned that those affected have not been given enough information.

He said : “These people have been getting the runaround from BT and I feel that BT’s response has been very slow, they should not be leaving the elderly hanging without information.”

BT said that because of the flooding they will have to replace more than 100 metres of broken cable, and expect that repair work will carry over until the end of the weekend before the service is restored. The repair work will involve a lane closure at Western Esplanade.

A spokesman from BT said: “We do apologise to customers for the inconvenience. This is a complex fault to fix and we totally understand people’s concerns and take loss of service for our customers very seriously and we are working as quickly as possible to restore service.”