Danbury crash leaves home and business without broadband

Open Reach said repairs to the badly damaged cabinet were "complex"

Homes and businesses, including a GP surgery, are without phone and broadband services after a vehicle hit a telecoms exchange box.

The crash knocked out services in Danbury, near Chelmsford, Essex, in the early hours of Friday.

Among those affected are 400 homes and Danbury Medical Practice, which cannot access digitised patient records.

Open Reach said it had made the area safe but repairs were "complex" and would not be completed until Tuesday.

"We're doing our best to get everyone back online as quickly as possible and hope to have repairs complete by 31 January," it said.

"We understand how frustrating this must be for anyone is affected; we encourage anyone experiencing any disruption with their phone or broadband service to report it to their service provider who will then inform us".

'Prescribing very difficult'

Dr Caroline Dollery said the surgery was able to divert calls via its two sites in Chelmsford, but staff at Danbury had to refer to paper medical records.

"It's not ideal - you don't have access to the full record, you have to rely on a conversation with the patient and getting a good history from them," she added.

"It makes things like repeat prescribing very difficult because we haven't got the system in front of us.

"I would've hoped it could be done quicker for something as critical as a surgery.

"It is a bit of a concern."

Essex Police said officers were called to a single-vehicle crash on The Avenue shortly before 01:00 GMT on Friday.

No one was injured and no offences were identified.