Homes and businesses in West Molesey have entered a third week without landline telephones after recent bad weather caused a “major break” in a BT cable.

Customers using TalkTalk have been affected with the problems since before the school half term, with dates to fix the problem continually being pushed back.

Kim Bax, manager of Henrietta Playgroup in Walton Road, said the nursery’s line went down more than two weeks ago and is yet to be repaired.

She said: “We thought it was our phone and got on to TalkTalk and they said there was a problem in the Molesey area and it affected everyone.

“We have just started an advertising campaign and we are worried we are going to lose customers because it is ringing but it is not ringing here.”

Mrs Bax said the nursery is using Facebook to communicate with parents, who have been understanding of the problem, and have bought a mobile phone to use in the interim as an emergency means of contact.

She said: “For a very small business, when you have done a massive advertising campaign, it is scary because people might think we are really rude by not answering the phones but it’s not ringing here.”

A statement on TalkTalk’s website said: “You are no doubt aware of the extremely bad weather the UK has been experiencing recently and your area has been particularly badly hit.

“As a result there has been a surge in the number of physical faults with both cabling and network equipment.

“We are very sorry if you are inconvenienced by the situation and are working hard with both Openreach and Ofcom to improve their performance.”

The issue is not believed to be affecting internet or television services.