Village cut off without internet and TV for over a month after storm
Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter
A north Wales village has been without internet and television for more than a month after a storm caused an outage and “ruined Christmas”.
A winter storm brought down a pole, leaving Llanelidan in rural Denbighshire without internet, wi-fi and television since December 6.
Howard Parry lives in the village, located between Ruthin and Corwen, with his wife.
He has been left astonished that the issue has not been fixed by Openreach, who have apologised for the disruption.
He said: “I’ve had no internet since December 6. Apparently, a pole and cable came down, and we’ve had no connection, no landline, and no TV.
“I’m not so bad, but my wife has her favourite TV programmes. It has ruined Christmas.”
Mr Evans complained to his mobile provider and raised the issue with local politicians without much success.
He explained. “I was so cheesed off I got my daughter to email the MP Becky Gittins.
“But Openreach can’t access the land. We are told that the landowner is refusing access to repair the fault.
“I’ve got in touch with my councillor, Hugh Evans, but EE didn’t want to speak to him. They wanted to speak to the customer.”
He added: “It is quite a large area but sparsely populated. To say I’m annoyed is the polite way to put it. I would have thought it would be easy to fix. It is the 21st century.”
Cllr Hugh Evans said: “It is ironic that the internet is there to improve communication and information, and here we are with bodies not engaging and explaining and providing information as to why they can’t provide a proper service.”
An Openreach spokesman said: “Part of our overhead network is damaged; however, because of the pole’s location, it requires some extra work. We’re sorry for the disruption this has caused.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked both Openreach and EE how many residents are affected, but the question went unanswered.
A spokeswoman for Denbighshire County Council said: “Denbighshire County Council is not the responsible or regulatory authority for any of the issues raised, and therefore we are unable to comment further.”
EE and Clwyd East MP Becky Gittins were also contacted for a comment.
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