AN 87-year-old has been cut off from friends and family for 10 days after workmen cut through a phone cable, he claims.

John Brown said the worst thing is he has been told nothing and his 60-year-old son has now taken up the fight for him.

Residents in St Albans Road, Woodford Green, were cut off on July 24.

A number of residents at the bottom end of the road suffered the loss of their phone lines, some for more days than others.

Rosalind Lee, 65, said she could not use her phone for five days.

She said: "I've had a heart attack in teh past so I was worried in case anything happened."

Mr Brown, who is partially deaf, is still without a working phone line today.

He has a pay as you go mobile phone but said he finds it hard to use and it has cost him £5 making three local calls.

He said his son Alan, who lives in Suffolk, called BT about getting the line fixed and he was told a new cable needed to be laid and it might not be done until August 8.

Mr Brown, said: "They don't tell you anything. There were quite a few houses affected and whoever was responsible doesn't seem to care."

Mr Brown, who worked for the Daily Mail for 30 years, said he thinks he is the only resident left in the road without a working phone line.

He said: "My family and friends usually ring me, I'm sure some will wonder what's happened.

"If someone had come round explained what happened and said it would be fixed as soon as possible then that's fair enough but I feel like I've been ignored.

"It's been a huge inconvenience and there's the fact that if I fell ill or had a stroke I might be struggling."

Residents in the road claim it may have been Morrison Utility Services that were carrying out the initial work.

A spokeswoman for Morrison said: “Obviously we do care about what happened in St Albans Road and we took immediate action to ensure phone services were restored.

"Ultimately, however, we’re not a phone company so we can’t fix a phone problem.

"We gather that most of the phone lines were restored very quickly but you will need to speak with BT for the latest position.”

A spokesman for BT said: "We suffered third party damage to one of our underground cables on the July 24.

"We managed to perform a temporary repair but because of damage to the cable we were not able to perform a full repair and have five faults outstanding.

"To complete a full repair needed to put a new section of cable in for which we had to clear blockages which required further excavations.

"This cabling is now in and we are jointing in the new section and are hopeful of restoring service to those remaining out of service lines by close of play tomorrow."