Hundreds of Cropwell Bishop residents left disconnected following phone cable theft

A major cable theft has left 500 households in a village disconnected for nearly two weeks.

Residents in Cropwell Bishop have been without landline connection since Friday, January 21 after over 700 metres of underground cables were stolen from the area.

The cables, belonging to Openreach, connected the phones of hundreds of households in the village.

Mike Elliot, who was affected by the theft, said: "I know a lot of people who have been in difficulty, particularly those who work from home.

"I reported it thinking it was just my phone. I've been told they are waiting for a new cable to be delivered and then they will start the work."

An Openreach spokesman said: “It’s really disappointing that local people here are bearing the brunt of criminal behaviour.

“More than 700 metres of our underground cable has been stolen, and the network badly damaged.

"We’re waiting on delivery of replacement cable, which is expected to arrive in the next day or two. We’ve had a number of these attacks across the region, which is placing significant demand on our resources.

“Once we have the new cable in place, our engineers will start the time-consuming manual task of connecting people back up.

"Around 500 households are affected and we can totally appreciate how disruptive this is. We’re doing all we can to repair the network as quickly as possible and will have a better idea on timescales once the new cable is in place.”