Fed-up Vodafone customers are still experiencing signal problems in Marlborough despite attempts by the mobile phone company to make improvements.

Veterinary nurse Kirsty Steel, 25, of Avon Square, Upavon, said she had not noticed a difference since work was carried out on the mast at the end of last week.

She said: “I can never get through to my mum, who is also on Vodafone. You would think you’d get better service ringing from the same provider.

“My mum works as a cleaner at a private house in Manton so the only way to contact her is on her mobile. At first Vodafone told us it was because she had an old phone, but she has a new one now and it’s still a problem.”

Danielle Loney, 22, of Orchard Road, works at Boots in the High Street and has such difficulty getting a signal that she has to stand outside the Vodafone shop when she wants to make a call.

She said: “I only get a signal in the attic of my house, so if there was an emergency then goodness knows what we’d do.

“My dad is with Vodafone and works for Ramsbury Estates as a maintenance manager and he is on call 24/7, but no-one can get through to him.”

Justin Cook, who runs private car hire firm Arrow, in the High Street, has received the backing of Devizes MP Claire Perry for his Nodafone e-petition which has now collected 139 signatures.

He said: “Over the past few days there has been a slight improvement, but what happens now is you make a call and then get cut off after 10 seconds.

“We need political juice on this, because this problem affects everyone.”

Mrs Perry said: “I have been following with great interest the excellent Nodafone campaign.

“I think it’s great that he has been so active in pushing this issue forward as it has been obvious for too long that mobile phone coverage in Marlborough is very poor.

“It is unhelpful not just for local businesses, like Justin’s, but also for people wanting to communicate in the town.

“It is great to see this sort of people power taking off.

“I have written to the CEO of Vodafone UK, Guy Laurence, asking him to look into the concerns and will continue to follow this issue closely.”

Vodafone previously said that customers may sometimes find the service temporarily unavailable because of a problem with congestion, and added it was unable to facilitate a public meeting to discuss ongoing problems.

A spokesman said: “We carried out work to improve capacity at the end of last week and we have seen some improvements over the weekend.

“We are planning to make some further enhancements.”