A MAJOR phone company has apologised to customers after its network coverage remained down for a fifth consecutive week.

Vodafone users in Highbridge and Burnham have been left increasingly annoyed as the damage to a transmitter last month still has not been fixed. A company spokesman said recent heavy rainfall and gales had delayed attempts to fix the phone mast.

Abi Cook, who runs the Hair Gallery in Highbridge, is among those who have been unable to use their phone since the damage occurred in the days leading up to Christmas.Despite having been unable to use her mobile phone for the past month, Vodafone has offered to only knock £10 off her £40 monthly tariff.

She said: “Hundreds of people have had problems here and everyone just gets told a different excuse.”

Without use of a landline, it has left her and husband Matthew reliant on her business phone.

A Vodafone spokesman said: “We do have a problem with a local site and we’re sorry our customers have been affected by a loss of service. We are treating this as a priority.

“Our engineers are working to get to the root cause of the problem and it looks as if we will have to replace some hardware.

“We’ve been delayed by the weather as riggers cannot climb the structure to carry out surveys unless it’s safe to do so. We also had issues with poor visibility even when they were able to.”

She was unable to state when the work would be carried out.