Business owner 'close to weeping' due to effects of storm
The owner of a glamping and cafe business has opened up at finding herself "close to weeping" after being left without internet more than a month after a telephone pole was taken out during Storm Bram.Jane Worley and her husband Alan run Felin Geri in Cwm Cou, Newcastle Emlyn, a getaway destination featuring luxury safari tents for up to eight people and private hot tubs, along with The Mill, a cafe and bar also on its grounds. But in the run up to Christmas, on December 5, the storm took out a tree and a telephone pole in the area, snapping the fibre broadband line.Although the pole has since been replaced, the broadband line has not, meaning Mrs Worsley's business has been unable to operate. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletterThe 67-year-old explained that her businesses' tills do not work, meaning payments cannot be taken, and it is struggling to access any of its booking systems.Mrs Worley told WalesOnline: "I'm getting to the point where I'm tearing my hair out. The business is totally reliant on internet. We can't take money through our card machine, our tills don't work, I've got to do a VAT return, and God knows how I'm going to do it, because everything is digital."I can't keep our Facebook updated, I've had to get people to work from home, and I can't advertise that the cafe is even open. It's making our life impossible."She called the situation "dire" and recalled an emergency incident over Christmas which she couldn't get to because of the lack of internet."Over Christmas, we had guests on site, one of whom managed to fracture their sternum in a freak accident on Christmas Eve. Their family couldn't contact him in hospital, and he couldn't contact us on site, as we are dependent on WiFi calling."I just don't get anywhere with BT, I'm going round and round in circles with them. Every so often, we get excited because a van turns up, but since December 5, when the line came down, we've had nothing."I've tried speaking to Openreach, just trying to say to them, 'When are you going to repair the line', but I was cut off, almost rudely."Explaining her frustration she added: "I'm struggling with what to do, because we can't get through to anyone to speak to anyone to escalate anything. Even if they told us, 'This is our plan, this is what we're doing', at least we'd know what we're dealing with, but at the moment we're not getting that."I don't have any confidence that anything is going to happen anytime soon. Before Christmas I was close to weeping if I'm being honest."A BT spokeswoman said: “Following severe weather conditions and damage caused by Storm Bram there has been some service disruption.“We’re sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. We are working closely with Openreach to ensure repairs are completed as soon as weather conditions allow.”And an Openreach spokeswoman added: “Storm Bram brought down a tree in Cwm Cou causing extensive damage to our network. We've reset three poles and completed tree cutting, but traffic management is needed so that our engineers can replace cable safely."Due to adverse weather conditions our visit planned on Tuesday has been rebooked for Thursday. We’re sorry for the disruption caused to Mrs Worley and we’ll work as quickly as possible to get everyone reconnected.”Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice.
