RESIDENTS in East Tilbury have been hit once again after thieves tore up telephone cables to sell them for scrap.

It is the third time in the past three months that this has happened and some residents in the area will be without landlines for at least a week – possibly longer.

One East Tilbury Village resident, Kenneth Hayward, summed up the feeling of local people, saying: "Once again I find myself, along with the rest of East Tilbury, without access to a BT landline due to cable and battery theft. This is the third time within 12 weeks that this has happened and it is been made worse for me by the fact by the fact that mobile reception is very bad in East Tilbury Village.

"We can expect to be reconnected towards the end of next weekend but if previous experience is anything to go by this may be to someone else's phone number.

"Nobody seems to be interested in doing anything to stop these continuing crimes, to Open Reach they are a "network issue" and customer service staff are surprised if you tell them what has really happened.

"Do the Police even know what is going on and is anyone looking into scrap metal dealers who must be buying the loot?

"It is to be hoped that somebody may feel themselves under pressure to do something to stop it being so easy for these thefts."

Ward councillor Fraser Massey says he has a great deal of sympathy with his fellow residents and that he hopes BT can move forward with plans to replace the local network cables sooner rather than later. Cllr Massey reports that Openreach crews are currently working at the theft site near Station Road

The Stanford-le-Hope exchange and network, which serves Linford, is due to go to fibre in 2023 but there appears to be no plan to upgrade Tilbury at the moment.

Nub News has contacted Open Reach about the situation. The company has acknowledged the problem and we await a formal statement.