A FORMER councillor has slammed a telephone company's repair system, claiming phones were left out of order for more than a week.

Sheelagh Delaney, who was a member of Hyndburn Council for eight years, blasted British Telecom even though the company has now offered to compensate her and others affected by the fault.

Sheelagh, who lives in Knuzden with another former councillor, Bill Goldsmith, claims the problem affected around 50 other homes in the area.

She first reported the fault after her phone went dead on Sunday, July 18 but had to wait nine days before it was fixed.

British Telecom eventually fixed the fault and has promised to compensate customers.

But Sheelagh, a dyslexia support organiser at Blackburn College, has refused to let the company off the hook.

She said: "I think it's time BT did something to improve its customer care. Compensation is fine, but it only comes after you've had great inconvenience.

"It takes them two days to check your line, then they say it's a fault somewhere else and they have to send someone to dig around. "BT told me themselves there were about 50 other houses in the area reporting the problem.

"There was no communication from the company during the problem. I was told that if I wanted to know what was happening I would have to contact them.

"You pay a lot of money per quarter to BT and you expect them to get to the bottom of it quicker than this.

"You expect to wait, but there is a limit. They could at least offer people mobile phones."

A BT spokeswoman said: "I understand engineers have now mended an underground cable which was causing the problem.

"We had to call contractors in even after the fault was found because the cable duct was blocked.

"There were other houses affected and customers will be receiving compensation. We apologise to everyone who has been affected."

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