RESIDENTS in two Bradford streets have had their internet and phone lines cut off after trees were dug up as they were cracking pavements.

Half of Boyd Avenue and three houses in neighbouring Gwynne Avenue in Thornbury have been left without the services since last Tuesday and residents say they are struggling to get any help to put it right.

Tracey Everson, 47, said despite contacting Bradford Council, which was carrying out the work, and her service providers, no-one seemed to want to take responsibility to get the lines repaired and affected homes re-connected.

The Council's workers had to remove five big trees because of concerns the pavements surrounding them were becoming dangerous because of appearing cracks.

Mrs Everson said: "We've all been contacting the Council but we've been told to individually call our suppliers which we've done and they've all said we need to go back to the Council first.

"We're just being sent round in circles. Basically we are paying for services now that we're not getting and it's the Council which is to blame.

"It's their workmen who caused the problem so they should help us get it sorted. It's our phones, the internet and we can't get any extra channels -we can only get free channels, we can't record or catch up or anything."

Danielle Gray, 27, of Gwynne Avenue added: "We are up in arms. It's like being marooned. No-one can ring us on our landlines and the children can't have their electronic toys. We just want the lines fixed so we can get back to normal."

Christine Travers, 54, of Boyd Avenue, said her provider TalkTalk had been more helpful than her neighbours' providers. TalkTalk had at least helped connect her with Openreach and come back with a hopeful date of getting the lines back up and running on Monday, June 15.

She said: "You don't realise how much you miss your landline until it's not there.

"My mother is ill in a home, I have a mobile but the other line is there as back-up. I got in touch with TalkTalk who were good and helped transfer any calls to the landline to my mobile and they've come up with June 15 as a date that Openreach say it will come and get it all fixed.

"It's a long wait but at least we've got a date."

A Bradford Council spokesman apologised to residents and said: “Unfortunately, the cable had been wrongly laid above the roots of the trees instead of below them. This meant that despite our precautions, work to remove the trees and make the pavement safe led to damage to the cable.

"We apologise to residents for the inconvenience and have notified the telephone and internet company which is responsible for repairing the cables and restoring service to the homes affected.”

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