Villagers frustrated over signal

Church tower project unfinished

A village in West Devon where people struggle to get a mobile phone signal says it’s been abandoned by Vodafone.

The telecommunications giant had been installing equipment on the church tower in Lifton to improve coverage across the area but left before the work was complete, it is claimed.

District councillor for the area Chris Edmunds (Con, Tamarside) said the church project was “frustrating” and he had failed to get any meaningful answers from Vodafone, meanwhile people had to travel out of the village to get a signal and it was having a “massive impact” on individuals and businesses.

“Connectivity is a general concern in this area,” he said. “We have problems with broadband in the rural areas and the mobile signal here in Lifton is not good. The church project would have solved the problem and given us good coverage across the village.

“The work has been started but nothing has happened for a while. The phone company just keeps talking about mergers and budgets. We need some specific answers of why nothing is happening here.”

Cllr Edmunds has asked his local MP Sir Geoffrey Cox to get involved.

June Balcombe who has run the award-winning Lifton Stores and Post Office for the past five years with her husband John said having no mobile phone signal was definitely a problem in the village.

“Lifton has always been a black hole as far as this is concerned,” she said,

“Our customers often have to leave the village to access their bank account or get a QR code to collect a parcel.

“We have 350 to 400 customers a day so it happens quite often.”

The village has a number of hotels including the Arundell Arms which has a Tesla supercharger facility on its land and can charge up to 16 vehicles simultaneously.

Receptionist Emma Heywood said people had to come into the hotel to use the wifi as there was no mobile signal to work the app outside.

She said although the hotel didn’t mind, it was an inconvenience for people who were in a rush.

Vodafone said it was not aware of any issues with its existing coverage in the Lifton area but added that it continued to monitor and was working on ways of improving its coverage further in the area.

“As part of our recent merger with Three, we have committed to invest £11 billion in order to build the UK’s best network. As part of this – and over the next year – we will give Vodafone and Three customers the ability to automatically connect to the best coverage available, at no extra cost.

“By the end of the year, we believe this will remove a total of 16,500 sq/km of ‘not spots’ across the UK.”