LATEST: Phone lines down after cables are damaged (From Knutsford Guardian)

LATEST: Phone lines down after cables are damaged

3:44pm Wednesday 26th September 2012 in News By James Wilson

MORE than 2,000 homes and businesses in the centre of Knutsford are without their phone lines after two cables were damaged.

BT confirmed to the Guardian on Wednesday afternoon that a large part of the town was being affected by the outage, including King Street and Thorneyholme Drive.

A spokesperson for BT said one of the cables was damaged by accident, while another was affected by water.

"We are currently working on two damaged cables in this vicinity," she said.

"One caused by accidental damage and the other is due to excess water getting in.

"Engineers are working round the clock to replace the damaged cables – and in the case of the accidental damage, they need to build a new manhole too.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

"It is regrettable when we suffer any kind of damage to our network.

"Our priority is always to restore services to those affected as quickly as we can, which is what we are doing in this case.

"We advise customers to contact their service provider to see if they can divert incoming calls on their affected services to an alternative number until the repairs are completed."

If you've been affected by the outage email the newsdesk at knutsford@guardiangrp.co.uk or text 80360 and start the message with Cheshire news.