Telecoms giant BT has been branded a “joke” after residents including a 97-year-old woman have been left without landline telephones for nearly three weeks.

Alan Dickenson said he and 12 other flats at Peel Court, Lister Lane, Bradford, have been “stranded” since August 9.

The 69-year-old claimed he rang BT four times since the phones went off, but was just told there was an underground problem that engineers were working on.

“It is a joke now,” said Mr Dickenson. “This Friday it will be three weeks without landline phones.

“Why can’t a multi-million pound company like BT sort this out quicker?

“There’s a 97-year-old lady in one of the flats and I’m sure she doesn’t have a mobile phone.

“Another old lady can hardly get out of the flat because she is so bad at walking. It is leaving her and us stranded in a way.”

He added: “Luckily, I’ve got a mobile phone, but I’m having to use that far more than I would normally.”

Mr Dickenson said he paid £14-a-month line rental to BT and added that his last bill, taken by the firm on direct debit, was £30.

“As we are without phones we shouldn’t have to pay the full amount,” said Mr Dickenson. “It is just a joke.

“BT have been and taken grates up and messed around but nothing has ever happened.

“Why should we have to wait all this time?”

A BT spokesman said a fault was first reported to them on August 8 and that, following a visit by an engineer, it was discovered that an underground cable needed to be replaced.

However, when engineers went to carry out the work they found multiple blockages within the underground ducting, which BT said made it impossible to remove damaged cable before a new one could be run through.

The spokesman said BT also tried to provide a temporary service, but there were no spare connections in the vicinity to hook up to.

They added that the duct needs quite extensive excavation in order to clear it and repair it. Engineers plan to start work on this today, or at least before the end of this week.

The spokesman added: “We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused by this loss of service. Damage and blockages within the underground ducting has made it impossible to replace the underground cable causing the fault. We will start work on excavations this week and get the service back up and running as quickly as possible.”