Student pleas for more time after phone fault

9:46am Monday 28th January 2002

STUDENT Ali Holmes-Drewry is furious after her phone was cut off over the New Year and is now behind schedule with her coursework as she had no access to the internet.

The mother-of-four, of Whielden Street, Amersham, is currently studying for a policing degree at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in High Wycombe, and is now struggling to catch up with swotting for her exams and writing assignments.

Miss Holmes-Drewry tried to get back on top of her work but got further behind when she came down with the flu last week, and has now had to send away a form to the college pleading for more time to finish her studies.

She said: "They cannot just cut people off without notice. What if I was an old lady with a heart condition and people were trying to contact me. It is inconvenient."

Miss Holmes-Drewry is also the publicity officer and a case worker for the charity the Bucks Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association and says it is important she is able to use the phone for her job.

Paul Dorrell, a spokesman for BT, said there was a fault between January 3 and 9 which after a lot of checking was traced to a fault at the telephone exchange, which was cleared on January 9.

They also had a report on Saturday about noise on the line and were due to visit her home this week.

He said the reason why her phone did not work was that the fault would have caused the phone to go off. He said it would have stopped working for reasons they were unaware of.

Mr Dorrell said Miss Holmes-Drewry was due compensation and BT would be contacting her.