Homeowners, schools and local businesses in Covingham have been left stranded and without answers as their landline phones have not worked for upwards of eight weeks.

The problem started in August, with several people in the area reporting their landlines had suddenly become completely dead, as weeks passed some saw their line return with poor connection or a crackly noise behind it, some had theirs return but couldn't dial out and some had their line remain dead.

Utility companies assured worried residents they were aware of the problem and were working on it, but many of them told The Adver they didn't have any idea what the problem was, or when it would be fixed.

Tracy Gibbons lives in Gantlettdene and she is worried about her father's vital Homeline not working for weeks

"My concerns are my parents who also live in Covingham. My dad has dementia and so has the Swindon Borough Council Homeline, which isn’t currently working.

"My mum has a mobile so that’s fine, but if something happened to my mum, my dad would need help urgently but wouldn’t know how to use the mobile."

Sandra Hollands is one of many people who live in Hawkswood without a landline.

"It's quite stressful, I'm having to visit my parents everyday in person as it's affected the way I communicate with them."

Covingham Park Primary School and several businesses on Covingham Square including the Co-op were also left without a working landline phone for weeks.

BT and Sky were approached for comment but advised that it was an Openreach issue.

On Monday a spokesperson from Openreach offered reassurance that the problem would be resolved yesterday.

“We’re very sorry for service issues experienced by people living and working in the Covingham area. Engineering work to replace a damaged underground cable has been plagued by unavoidable setbacks including severe underground duct blockages, proximity to an underground electricity pipeline and traffic light pressure pads.

“Sadly, despite our best efforts, we can’t clear the existing stretch of duct and engineers are on site building a new section of underground duct to house the new cable in. We expect to pull the new cable through Tuesday and begin the painstaking process of switching customers over to the new cable one by one.

"We expect this work to be complete and service restored by the end of Wednesday.”

Openreach were at Piccadilly Roundabout completing cabling work throughout the day on Wednesday and some people did have their landline restored, but for others, like Sandra above, the issue remains.