A farm on the outskirts of Bere Ferrers has been without a telephone line since December 28 and owners are desperate to have it reinstated. Vera Jackson, 77, of New Park Farm, has been in touch with British Telecom every week and has now written to MP Geoffrey Cox hoping he can help. BT says it needs to cut trees on a bank near the railway station which have grown close to telephone lines. Mrs Jackson said: 'It is driving me round the bend. I ring BT every week, but am not getting anywhere. They now say they have to get permission from the railways to cut the trees and will need to stop the trains. 'The trees have grown up on the road bank near the station around the wires, but is hasn't happened overnight.' The other occupants of the farm are her sister Kath, 91, and son Steve. BT has arranged for calls to be diverted to Steve's mobile. But mobile reception in the farm is virtually non-existent, and he has go outdoors to get a signal. Vera's daughter, Margaret, who lives in the village, said if she wanted to get hold of her mother she has to get in her car and drive there. Kath had been ill recently and if they had needed to summon a doctor, they would not have been able to do so, she added. Neighbour Alan Searle still has a phone line working, but has been unable to use his Broadband Internet connection since it was installed last October. 'BT say it is because of the cable fault and we are still waiting for it to be repaired,' Mr Searle said. BT's Jason Mann said: 'Of course, we apologise for the delay, but this has been an exceptionally complicated case.' He said no more than four customers had been affected. 'We have liaised with the electricity company to attach the line to their pole rather than the existing one that is leaning towards the railway line, and we have now obtained permission to do that. 'We now need the go ahead from Network Rail to allow us to replace 90 metres of overhead cable,' Mr Mann said. They had looked at the possibility of providing a temporary line to the farm, but it had not been viable. 'All the survey and paper work has been done; we are just waiting to hear back from Network Rail,' he said. A spokeperson for Network Rail said they were aware of the situation and the matter had been passed to their maintenance department.
