Walkhampton village finally has internet access again after being cut off without communication for more than a week.

A single Openreach cabinet serves the entire village on the western side of Dartmoor, was involved in a collision with a car on Thursday, May 29.

The glancing blow brought the communications in the village to a standstill as repairs to mend the cabinet by Openreach took eight days.

Power was finally restored to the village on Friday night.

Local parish councillor Gary Clifford, speaking last week, said: “The village has only very patchy cellular coverage so without telephone and internet it pretty much leaves the whole village cut off from the rest of the world.

“In 2025 it is difficult to understand why the Openreach communications cabinet is a single point of failure in the village, especially as cellular coverage is so poor. It leaves vulnerable people in the village without much-needed communications.”

The blackout left businesses such as the Walkhampton Inn missing out on bookings by phone and having to use mobile phone signal to take electronic payment in the beer garden.

Cllr Clifford added: “I tried contacting Openreach yesterday, they are unapproachable. One agent said that they don't know anything about it, even though they have been working on it. They just keep saying that I need to contact my service provider. IIn the end, I emailed their CEO, surprise, surprise, I haven't heard back.”

An Openreach spokesperson confirmed that the damage was caused by a car colliding with its green cabinet in Walkhampton disrupting broadband and landline services for some customers in the area.

It said it had “provided temporary service to all affected customer”.

On Friday afternoon last week, Openreach confirmed that power had been restored to the cabinet, saying: “The cab is now reconnected to the mains power and everything should be back in service. Again, if customers are experiencing issues, it’s best for them to contact their service provider.”