ANNOYED residents and businesses in Pewsey are calling for BT to take swifter action after their landlines have been down for nearly a week.

Charity chairman Michael Brown, who lives in Sharcott Pennings, Pewsey with his wife Mary, 73, is among residents in Milton Lilbourne, Prospect, Wilcot and Oare who are having problems and have made complaints.

They are experiencing a loud crackling sound when they make or receive calls, or their lines are completely dead, but say BT has not been able to tell them why.

Mr Brown celebrated his 81st birthday on Friday but was unable to speak to his daughter Cara and his two grandchildren who live in Australia because of the telephone problems.

“On Friday it started messing about and they said it would be two days until it was fixed, but on Tuesday it was still not working and they will not tell me why,” said the retired commercial insurance broker, who is chairman of Marlborough Talking News.

“It is making a crunching and crackling sound, it is terrible. I was waiting for calls from my family in Australia on my birthday and they could not get through, it was rather frustrating and upsetting.

“I have no phone and we are supposed to be having a drive for listeners with Marlborough Talking News and no one can get through to me. It is disgraceful.”

Problems have been reported in the village since Thursday from many people using Sky, Talk Talk and Post Office Broadband, who rent the line off BT. However, a spokesman from Post Office said: “We are not aware of any issues in the area.”

Pewsey Surgery has also had to text their patients to warn them about the problems with the telephones and other people have reported picking up their phone to hear other people’s conversations, or be woken up at 3am by their phone randomly ringing.

A spokesman for Openreach said: "Unfortunately an underground cable serving some properties in Pewsey is faulty.

"Our engineers have already been on site to inspect the cable but further work needs to be carried in order to identify the exact cause and location of the fault.

"We are looking to replace the faulty cable as a matter of urgency in order to restore service as quickly as possible."