AT LEAST 100 households in the Itchen Valley are still experiencing faulty telephone lines.

Residents across Easton, Avington, Itchen Abbas and Martyr Worthy have been experiencing problems with their phones since before Christmas, but have only recently realised the scale of the issue.

Callers are unable to hear the receiver, and vice versa, with some phones becoming randomly useless.

Several residents have reported it to their service providers, most poignantly BT, and to Steve Brine, MP for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford, who has been in contact with Open Reach who deal with telephone line infrastructure.

He has called for a major review of the exchange system in the area.

Open Reach reported back that there were no main underlying issues, and some problematic equipment has been recently replaced.

However, the new equipment has only improved the service for some residents, with Mr Brine calling for further action saying the response “isn’t good enough”.

He said: “This has been a consistent, or be it intermittent, nuisance for phone customers across these villages since way back in the autumn, and before Christmas.

“BT are taking it seriously and have assured me that they have been carrying out investigations, but they need to know that the job isn’t done because there are still customers with issues.”

BT have said there could be a variety of factors contributing to telephone problems, from fallen trees on telegraph poles to damage to underground equipment due to flooding.

They were unavailable for further comment.