Weekend work in Lanark for BT problem

Connected...some residents wish they could go back to the good old days and speak to someone!

To carry out the work, it needs access to a manhole on Westport at its junction with Mousebank Road, Lanark.

The work will take place overnight, from 8pm on Saturday to 6am on Sunday.

Traffic will be controlled by temporary signals.

Here’s the story from this week’s Gazette:

Although Lanark has had a telephone service for over 100 years, one part of town has been left without one for the past month.

Frustrated and angry BT Openreach customers living on a stretch of Hillhouse Farm Road, in an estate built around the former William Smellie Hospital, are now clamouring for action to have themselves reconnected.

At least one resident believes that a telephone connection is a medical necessity, but even this has failed to stir the telecommunication giant into action, with claims it seems more concerned with passing the blame for the problem onto another huge conglomerate, Sky.

Now, after waiting for either company to do something to restore their service, residents have turned to the Gazette and local Independent South Lanarkshire councillor Ed Archer to take up the cudgels on their behalf.

The councillor has now joined his constituents in being frustrated by attempts to get action - or even in touch - with BT Openreach.

He said on Monday: “I am outraged by the attitude of BT Openreach to the public.

“The most upsetting call that I had from the residents in Hillhouse Farm Gate was from a constituent who told me that he and his wife have been without their landline for a month, which is a very poor situation as his wife needs to have access to an emergency alert system dependant on a telephone connection.

“Apparently BT Openreach were trying to blame Sky, who is the couple’s service provider, but the fault is not confined to one house but several houses in the area.

“Clearly this is a BT Openreach problem which should be dealt with immediately.

“However the problem facing BT Openreach customers is that they cannot reach a complaints department easily, if at all.

“Management are totally inaccessible by phone so one cannot speak to those supposed to be delivering a service to the public.”