MYSTERY surrounds what caused three Darlington businesses' phone lines to be cut off for a week.

The phone lines of three Blackwellgate premises were out of action for a week, leaving at least one business without a direct line to its security company for seven days.

Telecommunications company BT said a damaged cable caused the lines to be severed, but it is not known what caused the problem.

Darlington Borough Council, which is carrying out works on the Pedestrian Heart project nearby, said BT had not contacted it to report the damaged cable - which would be the usual practice if council workmen had severed the line.

Businesses became aware of the difficulties last Tuesday, but the lines were not reconnected until the afternoon of Tuesday this week.

One of the affected businesses, shoe shop Loafers, was left without proper security for a week, after the line which links the shop's alarm system to the security firm was cut, although the regular telephone line was still operating.

Manager Susan Tunstall said that it was thought the lines went out on Monday night and the incident had been a worrying experience.

"The alarm fault light was on, so we contacted the alarm company and called the alarm engineer out, and they said it was a BT fault.

"Obviously, the line was not connected to the police station, so if anything had gone wrong, we would have had a problem."

A spokeswoman for BT said that a small cable had been damaged, affecting the phone lines of three businesses.

She said it had taken a week to repair because of the nature of the work.

"We had to get specialist people to go down the man-hole because it was quite a tight space."

She added that the company could not be sure what had caused the damage.

A council spokeswoman said: "We haven't actually laid any cable in Blackwellgate since the work began.

"We knew BT were on site, but we haven't been contacted by them at all."