by Angela Cole

acole@thekmgroup.co.uk

A shooting in a quiet country lane has left homeowners in Staplehurst cut off for six weeks.

But residents around the unadopted Lovehurst Lane won’t be seeing police tape or forensics officers at the scene.

Instead it is men or women dressed in BT uniforms the homeowners are hoping to spot.

A dozen or so homes in the rural location have been without phones for 43 days after a blast during a pheasant shoot knocked out the cable in a field on Goudhurst Road.

And since the incident on December 28, despite numerous calls - from mobile phones – BT have failed to restore the service.

The explanation for the initial silence on the lines was explained to homeowners by a tag left on the phone post, which stated: "Accidental damage due to shooting."

Colin Tucker, who runs his property business from his home opposite, said: "The sign says it was due to a shooting accident and there is always a pheasant shoot here on that day.

"I know a little bit about telecoms as I ran my own telecoms business. It is ridiculous that they have not fixed it yet – we just seem to have been put on the back burner.

"I have been told 12 homes are affected. It is not ideal for me as I run my business from here, although I have diverted my calls to my mobile – although that only has service in certain parts of the house, so it is disruptive."

A spokesman for BT apologised for the inconvenience and said they were working to find the best solution to ensure it does not happen again.

"We will be installing shot resistant cable and because of the location, we will have to erect it by hand, which will take three engineers."