Villagers reconnected more than a week after fatal crash destroyed telegraph pole
Most people in a south Shropshire village who had their landline and broadband connection cut off for more a week are at last back online.
Service provider Openreach said that its engineers had been in the area to finish off reconnecting customers after a crash last Friday in Chirbury knocked out a telegraph pole and with it services for about 20 customers.
The driver was killed when the car he was in rolled over and crashed into a wall at around 11.30pm.
Councillor Heather Kidd said: "It is a huge relief to get most people reconnected and I understand the only people who haven't had their services restored are those who have not been in.
"It was a terrible accident for the family and traumatic for everybody in the village. In incidents like this Openreach really ought to up their game.
"Leaving customers disconnected for more than a week in this day and age when people work from home and rely on these services is not acceptable."
Councillor Kidd has also raised the issue at a meeting of Shropshire Council's health and adult social care scrutiny committee on Tuesday.
"There must be a way of supporting the most vulnerable people when their services go down in emergencies," she said.
A neighbour of her's has an emergency cord that relies on a landline service.
"We can't leave people like that without a service for over a week," she said.
She had nothing but praise for the teams of workers on the ground who had been trying to sort the issue out.
