Simon Danczuk slams BT Openreach in Parliament over "scandalously slow response"

Photo: Journeaux

Simon Danczuk

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk criticised BT Openreach's "scandalously slow response" after local businesses were cut off by flood damage during a Parliamentary debate on the impact that recent flooding had on the communication infrastructure in Rochdale.

Government Minister Ed Vaizey agreed “lessons can be learned” and that the Government must “work with the industry to understand what happened”.

Rochdale Online reported in January how hundreds of homes and businesses in Rochdale were left without phone and internet connections when flood water damaged cables. This included several independent shops who were left unable to process card payments.

For over a month customers were kept in the dark by BT Openreach, who failed to provide solid repair dates. 

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/100401/bt-phone-outage-leaves-businesses-suffering

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/1/business-news/100445/bt-customers-express-anger-as-phone-lines-remain-down

Using local case studies Mr Danczuk said the impact of this damage was about the “individual's hit” rather than "figures or statistics”.

Mr Danczuk said: “I arranged for the debate because the response from the telecommunications companies has not been good enough. We must shine a light on this shocking issue to ensure that it does not happen again.

“Running a business alone is tough, and people effectively have to take on multiple roles on their own. Never mind the risks to their economic well being, the last thing they need is to have to lobby their phone and broadband providers to get the basic services for which they are already paying.

“That is scandalous, and something needs to happen.

“One might conclude that the telecommunications companies need a lesson in communications, and fast.”

Government Minister Ed Vaizey responded: “I hope that Openreach and retail providers will take note of the honorable gentleman’s remarks, because he brought to the House real case studies of people who frankly found themselves banging their heads against a brick wall when they wanted quick, robust service to get their business up and running.

“As with any disruption on that scale, we will work with the industry to understand what happened and what measures we can put in place to ensure that the response to such events continues to improve.”