PEOPLE trying to run small businesses from their homes were badly let down by a three-week broadband internet failure in Cowling, according to a local resident.

Alan McEwen, who manages two businesses from his home, branded the length of time it took to resolve the problem a "fiasco".

He said BT Openreach's middle and senior management, rather than its engineers, were to blame.

A BT spokesman has apologised for the delay in restoring the service.

Mr McEwen added that the connection was cut by a road collision on September 29 and only fully restored on the afternoon of Thursday October 20.

"It's been a nightmare," he said.

"Obviously accidents do happen. However, this collision resulted in many small, local businesses, tradesmen and hill farms being without Internet.

"I've been run ragged on the phone speaking to people from the Highlands to Belfast trying to get it sorted out.

"The most local person I could find to speak to was someone in Blackburn, who didn't have a clue where Cowling was.

"We depend on the Internet for about 90 per cent of our business. We're so dependent on it, because most of our business comes from south east England and many customers now don't even want to use the phone.

"We know that at least two of our orders went elsewhere because of this problem."

Mr McEwen and his wife, run Sledgehammer Engineering Press Ltd, which specialises in publishing books about Britain's industrial history.

They also operate Dandelion Stone Troughs & Architectural Antiques, which supplies unusual garden ornaments and architectural antiques.

Mr McEwen said Cowling's broadband was severed on September 29 by a car colliding with a steel cabinet on the main Keighley Road, destroying the fibre optic cables which provided the connection.

He added: "It took over 14 days for BT Openreach to install a replacement control cabinet.

"On one of the rare occasions that I managed to talk to a BT employee based in Plymouth, the excuse was that 'BT Openreach were awaiting delivery of a component.'

"Surely this is a nonsensical excuse? A company the size of BT must have warehouses containing millions of component parts scattered across the UK.

"I consider the BT service to be appalling and not fit to operate as a service provider."

The BT spokesman responded: "We were first aware that there was a problem with this fibre broadband cabinet due to a road traffic accident late at night on September 30.

"Our first priority was to make the cabinet safe as it has power running to it, which happened in the early hours of the next day.

"Unfortunately we were faced with some technical and engineering challenges to get the cabinet fully up and running again and the service was restored on October 17.

"We apologise for the delays and the inconvenience this caused to people in the local community."