VILLAGERS near Alresford have been without internet for nearly a week after a lorry brought down a power cable.

They are furious about the time it is taking Openreach to fix the problem.

Around 30 homes have been affected in Avington since last Wednesday. A lorry carrying an excavator hit a tree snapping the cable on the road into the village from Itchen Abbas near to the River Itchen.

One villager, who asked not to be named, said they had been told it will not be fixed until tomorrow: "It is impacting everything. We can get TV but the only place to get WiFi is the village hall. Locals are furious, they cant comprehend how it can take BT so long to fix. It is ridiculous."

Another villager told the Chronicle today that the repairs will take even longer: "It is infuriating. The whole village is cut off. We have been told it will not be sorted before Thursday.

"There are elderly people in the village and people with health issues, so it is awful," she said.

Openreach, the operational arm of BT, in a statement said: “This loss of service was caused when a lorry snapped a substantial overhead cable within our network. Work to replace the cable will go ahead tomorrow as engineers have now completed testing the safety and integrity of all linked telegraph poles along the route.

“We’re very sorry for any inconvenience caused to those impacted by the damage.”