BT has admitted responsibility for a botch-up in communication, which left a couple without a phone line for three weeks.

The fiasco started on September 28 when a car collided with a telegraph pole outside the home of Geoffrey and Rosa Walton, Eggleston, near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

The crash buckled the pole, and BT engineers were called out the next day to make the pole safe and remove any dangerous wires.

But the pole has been lying by the side of the B6278 ever since, and despite several phone calls on the couple's mobile to BT to complain about the pole, nothing has been done.

The couple, who rely on their phone to contact their elderly parents, are furious BT has failed to get them reconnected.

Mr Walton, 50, who works for Glaxo Wellcome, in Barnard Castle, said: "All they have given us are false promises, and every time we have called they have said it will be sorted, but it never has.

"We need the phone in case one of our parents falls sick or needs help."

Yesterday, BT admitted it had failed to log the problem correctly, which had caused the delay, but said the couple had now been reconnected.

A spokesman for the company said: "There have been mistakes made, which obviously do not match the level of service BT and our customers expect."