VILLAGERS who lost internet and phone services after a lorry struck a pole should have them restored today (Wednesday).

At around 11:30am on Monday a lorry struck the cable pole when driving round the bend in the middle of Grizebeck village.

The pole was cracked and bent halfway up, which pulled some of the power cables taut and the receiver fixing on one property was pulled away from its fixing.

The junction box for telephone cables was hit and pulled off the pole, severing landline phone and internet services for part of the village.

Electricity North West attended around 12.30pm and were on site until about 11pm, replacing the damaged pole and fixing all the electrical cables.

An Openreach engineer attended at 8am on Tuesday and explained work could not begin without temporary traffic lights or a road closure in place for safety reasons as wires need running across the road.

Openreach are set to return to Grizebeck this morning (Wednesday) with a full crew.

Lee Thomas, who lives in Grizebeck said: “Whilst I was talking to the Openreach engineer another lorry came round the bend and missed hitting the pole again by a matter of centimetres.  So it wouldn't be safe to be working up there without traffic being stopped.

“You don't realise how much you rely on an internet connection in the sticks. Our mobile phone signal is so weak here that we use the internet when at home for Wi-Fi calling."

Lee said the pole was leaning quite a bit so two of his neighbours called the police as they were concerned it may have fallen onto the road with live cables.

A statement from Openreach said: “We’re very sorry for the loss of phone and broadband following third party damage to a telegraph pole in Grizebeck. The pole has been replaced and traffic management is booked for tomorrow so our engineers can safely reattach the overhead cables. We expect those impacted to be back up and running tomorrow (Wednesday February 14).”

There are currently temporary traffic lights in place.