HOUSEHOLDERS living on an isolated Gwent mountain say they are cut off from the outside world because a phone fault left their lines dead.

Telephone lines to the four cottages and farmhouses on the hill above Hollybush, near Blackwood, failed on November 8 and are still not restored.

BT admits the delay saying it must replace lengths of cable, and some of the telephone poles, and that the residents' telephones should be working again early this week.

Don Turner (pictured) and his wife Shan told the Argus they have repeatedly contacted the company since they first discovered their telephone was out of order.

The nearest public telephone is two miles away, in Markham, and mobiles do not always work on the mountain.

"We cannot even make a 999 call from up here," said Mr Turner.

The couple have contacted BT's customer complaints in Edinburgh and have been to the customer service department in Newport, in a bid to get their telephone mended. "First we were told that there was an underground fault then that a lorry had knocked a post down," said Mr Turner.

"Our neighbour rang as well and they told her they had run out of cable. "We are getting different stories all the time - you just don't expect this in the 21st century."

A spokesman for BT said engineers were working on the overhead fault. He said a span of line, around 200m long was being replaced, as well as some telephone poles.

"We hope this serious fault will be rectified at the beginning of next week," he added. He also apologised to the customers for the delay and said they would be entitled to compensation.