Shops and estate left without phones and broadband

HOMES and businesses were without phone lines or internet afterwards scavengers stole 800 metres of cable, cutting off Castle Ashby village and estate.

The cabling at about 11

Thieves removed the cabling at about 11.30pm on Wednesday, effecting up to 30 homes and 20 businesses in Castle Ashby Rural Shopping Yard.

Engineers spent the weekend repairing the phones, broadband and internet system with some homes and businesses being re-connected yesterday afternoon.Traffic calming measures were in place during work was carried out to repair the cable which BT said it hoped to complete by today.

The theft, which is an increasing problem across Northamptonshire, severely affected some businesses as PDQ card machines were as well cut off.

The first time

"The first time was on August 9 when a cable was cut by thieves trying to steal it. At that time, the telephone lines were lost for most of the day.

"This time BT says service will only be resumed some time on Monday. Businesses in the village have been severely affected. Shops in the courtyard have had to revert to manual processing of card transactions and we've had to move staff to my home where we have internet access and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones diverted to mobiles.

Matt Battison, of Mr B's sweet shop, said his phone was reconnected yesterday afternoon, soon afterwards he bought a mobile phone to stay in touch.

He added: "It's been terrible because I send out a lot of quotes and orders online so I've not been able to do any of that. And we've not been able to use the card machine so have just been taking cash. We're lucky as we deal with small amounts of money however for the antiques stores and The Buttery, a lot of their business is paid for by cards."

She said: "All the businesses in the yard have been affected. It's been annoying however we have been dealing with it and helping each other out as much as we can."