Phone lines have been down for more than two months in an Oxfordshire village causing distress and disrupting businesses.

People affected by the breakdown in service say promises by BT to repair the fault in Denchworth, near Wantage, have not been kept.

The situation is causing particular problems for the Rev Roger Williams, chaplain to deaf people in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, who relies on a fax machine to keep in touch with his deaf parishioners.

He said he expected BT to treat his case as a priority.

He said: "I depend on my fax machine to keep in touch with them. Ironically my voice line is still working, but not the fax line. I can still use e-mail but not everyone has access to e-mail.

"The situation is causing severe problems. I can't get hold of people and people can't get hold of me. I am very disappointed with BT." Neighbour Stuart Hopley, financial director for the Research Council at Harwell, said he was considering legal action against BT. He said: "It's been greatly inconvenient. I have tried to find out what's happening but I can find out nothing. I want to complain but can't find out who to complain to.

"I feel completely impotent because I cannot find out what's going on."

Another neighbour, Alison Wright, said she noticed a fault on her family land line on July 1. She said she had made countless calls to BT to report the fault, from the village phone box and from her office phone.

She said: "Calls to my land line have been redirected to my mobile phone but I have discovered not all my calls are reaching me. Friends and family tell me they have tried to call me but my phone hasn't rung. I have tried to contact people at BT but have got nowhere."

BT spokesman Jason Mann said about half a dozen homes had been affected by a deteriorating underground cable.

He said: "We apologise for the delay. It is very unusual for people to wait this length of time. The majority of faults are cleared up by the end of the next working day.

"In this case, it appears an underground cable has been deteriorating and we took the decision to completely replace it -- that is 3km of cable, a considerable job which included excavations. We would hope the work will be completed by the end of this week."