A PENSIONER has condemned BT for its repeated failure to restore his phone landline, almost two months after losing the service in the September floods.

Bruce Oliver, of Snape, near Bedale, said despite apologies from the firm over the length of time it had taken to repair the line and new dates being set for the work, he now had “no faith” in the company.

The retired cheese wholesaler, 69, said: “I just can’t believe anything I’m told by them.”

A BT spokeswoman said while work had initially been delayed due to excessively high fault volumes in many parts of the county due to severe weather and a key box being located in a “traffic sensitive area”, engineers had found flood damage in the village had been greater than first thought.

She said: “When the joint box was accessed damage was more extensive than thought and required the replacement of 455m of cable.”

She said the work was expected to take two days and that affected customers should have their landlines restored before the weekend.

Mr Oliver’s plight follows 93-year-old Dunkirk veteran David Evans, of Leyburn branding the firm a disgrace after being left without his landline for almost a month following the floods.

And residents of Thornton-le-Beans and Thornton-le-Moor, near Northallerton, who were left without telephone lines for two weeks in September, condemned BT for leaving dozens of elderly villagers without a means of communication.