IN the wake of another spate of theft of metal-based communications cabling in the East Tilbury area, a call has gone out to BT Openreach to change its policy before there are more serious consequences.

For several years since the introduction of broadband and new cabling, the rural areas of East Tilbury, Linford and West Tilbury have regularly been hit by thieves digging it up for its scrap value.

Frequently many homes and business have lost all phone and broadband connectivity, sometimes for a number of weeks.

The latest surge of thefts took place last week – leaving many homes cut off again.

"Enough is enough", says East Tilbury councillor Fraser Massey who says a drastic change of plan is needed.

"This has happened so many times now and my fear is it will keep happening unless something changes.

"For the life of me I cannot understand why BT continue to use copper and metal-based cables when fibre is available.

"If they change it to fibre it solves problem.

Cllr Massey went on to outline his worst case scenario. "There are a lot of elderly people in East Tilbury whose homes and alarm pendants are connected to their carers and the emergency services via the phonelines.

"If one of them fell while the service was off they could end up lying in their homes for hours – or even days. That could have very tragic consequences and to my mind we should be doing everything to prevent it."

Cllr Massey's concerns were backed up by fellow councillor Sue Sammons who said: "This keeps happening and it seems as if no one is doing anything about it.

"Is it because East Tilbury is a little off the beaten track? Or that we are not making enough fuss about it. Something needs to be done and soon."

An Openreach spokesperson told Thurrock Nub News: "We're really disappointed that residents in the East Tilbury area have borne the brunt of criminal behaviour and theft from our network. 

"These attacks cause significant damage and unacceptable disruption to the lives of local people and put vulnerable people at risk.

"The incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning, impacting both phone and broadband service to local homes and businesses.

"Engineers are currently on site and working round the clock to restore services as quickly and safely as possible.

"We're already using anti-theft technology to help track stolen cable and convict criminals. We've also deployed proactive security measures following previous network attacks and our security team is working closely with police tackle the problem.

"We encourage anyone who is still experiencing problems to contact their provider who will advise us.

"We urge people to call 101 to report any suspicious activity to the Police; if members of the public do believe a crime is in progress then they should dial 999."