AN Oakenshaw woman is "disgusted" with BT after her elderly mother-in-law was left without a telephone line, including the emergency Lifeline, for nearly two weeks.

Denise Forgie said 83-year-old Helen Forgie had a fall at her Yarnigdale Close home but lay undiscovered for a day because her phone line was down.

The daughter-in-law said she repeatedly contacted BT to have the line reinstalled after it cut out on May 5.

But days later, when Mrs Forgie returned home following a hospital visit, the line was still down - along with the Lifeline system.

The service was not resumed until Thursday, meaning her frail mother-in-law was without any communication for nearly a fortnight.

"I got in touch with Lifeline and they got on to BT as well as me. They said there was a fault on the line and the engineers were aware of it but they could not tell me when it would be fixed," she said.

"Even the day before it came back on they couldn't say when it would be fixed - it's disgusting."

She added: "She is very frail and Lifeline is her only way of communication. What is a priority if Lifeline is not?"

A BT spokeswoman blamed the problem on underground ducting and said they had had to replace a 12-metre section of underground cable but apologised for the lack of service.

"The repair was undertaken as quickly as possible but unfortunately did take longer than we would have liked, for which we are very sorry," she said.