Our picturesque town has been ruined by huge new feature… we can’t use our phones – we were given no warning
RESIDENTS in a countryside town have been cut off by a huge new feature.
Furious villagers and holidaymakers in Horning, Norfolk, say they received no warning before they suddenly lost their O2 signal eight weeks ago.
Seagulls nesting on a mast were initially cited as the reason for the outage.
But residents have now been told a new golf ball-shaped Ministry of Defence radar dome is what has really left them isolated.
The disruption began when a network mast was taken down to avoid interfering with the operation of a new golf ball-shaped dome at the former RAF Neatsishead base.
Gail Watling, 58, who runs the Tidings convenience store in the village, said: "It is just terrible. I sometimes have no signal at all on my O2 phone and other times it is one or two bars.
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"But even when I have two bars, I am unable to make a call and I have no mobile data.
"People keep saying they try to ring me and can’t get through. I am getting people coming in all the time and asking to use my shop’s wi-fi because they can’t use their phones.
"My main moan is that they must have known this was going to happen and yet they did nothing to put it right. I am really worried about something happening on the water and people not being able to call for help."
Ms Watling’s daughter Lee Chapman, 28, who is a teacher in Birmingham and currently visiting Horning, added: "I can’t get any signal down in the village. I only get one bar if I go up the hill.
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"Apparently the new mast is not going to come into action until the end of September as they have to get proper permission. It is ridiculous. O2 need to get their act together."
Horning sub-postmaster Andrew Seddon, 65, who runs the village post office and shop with his wife Adrienne, 59, said: "Our payment card machine used to be connected to the mobile network before it suddenly stopped working.
"It meant that we could not accept any card payments for two or three weeks until we got a new machine which we were able to connect to our wi-fi. It was a major inconvenience as hardly any people carry cash these days."
The new radar station, packed with state-of-the-art technology and operated by contractor Serco for the MoD, is designed to give early warnings of threats to UK airspace.
It was built earlier this year to replace another radar dome which had been operating on a coastal site near 170ft high cliffs at nearby Trimingham, Norfolk.
Defence chiefs decided to move the dome eight miles inland to Neatishead to avoid the risk of it tumbling into the sea due to ongoing erosion in the area, and over fears that future offshore wind farms might interfere with its signals.
The issue was raised in Parliament by North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker last week, who claimed to have been told by O2 the outage was due to seagulls.
This meant the mast had to be taken out of action to avoid disturbing the birds and their brood.
But the phone network later admitted seagulls were not to blame and apologised for giving incorrect information to the MP.
He believes that the problems in recent weeks may finally be on the verge of being solved by the installation of a new temporary mast next to Horning village hall.
He said: "We are now very close to getting agreement for a temporary mast in situ next to the village hall in Horning.
"I can’t thank the Horning Village Hall committee and Horning Parish Council for working at such speed to get agreements in place. We seem to be nearly there.
"It will give fantastic service to all of the surrounding areas and O2 are trying to turn round what normally takes 16 weeks into eight weeks, providing the district council can pull out all the stops to get it through the necessary processes."
He is also pushing O2 to compensate customers and businesses affected by the loss of signal.
An O2 spokesperson said: "We are actively working to improve services for residents in Horning.
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"Work has been ongoing to find a suitable site for a new phone mast, and we have now confirmed the chosen site which, when operational, will boost coverage in the area.
"We will complete our work as soon as possible, and in the meantime, we apologise to any residents who may be experiencing intermittent issues with their services."
