Long-suffering Scotts Creek residents have endured more phone issues with reports of landlines being inoperable for two weeks.
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Corangamite Shire mayor Neil Trotter said he was contacted by a number of Scotts Creek residents complaining that their landlines had been inoperable for the last fortnight.
"Residents are rightly concerned and edgy about having no means of communication," he said.
"This is an area that was impacted by the St Patrick's Day fires and does not have mobile coverage."
Scotts Creek residents have suffered poor to no phone coverage in the area for some years, with the gravity of the issue becoming more apparent after the St Patrick's Day bushfires.
"The whole area has been a black spot for, well, forever," he said.
"The St Patrick's Day fires are still very fresh in the minds of Scotts Creek residents. The lack of communication was a huge issue back then and it's even worse when its now paired with inoperable landlines.
"The community is concerned that if they need to make a phone call, they've got to hop in their car and travel elsewhere just to do so.
"We are still in fire season so it is very concerning. It's a major travel route for people going from Timboon to Colac and you lose coverage about two kilometres out from Cobden."
Scotts Creek resident and Optus customer Heather Bullen said her landline was out of order for three-and-a-half weeks, but was reconnected last Friday.
"It has just been an absolute nightmare," she said.
"Without mobile signal here it is very stressful. My elderly mother lives next door and after my dad died 12 months ago, and me working full time, it's worrying knowing she can't just give me a call if something happens to her.
"It would be nice to have peace of mind that she can ring and touch base when she needs to."
Ms Bullen said when she realised her landline was down, she rang her service provider Optus and was advised it would be reconnected on February 10.
"Two days later it still wasn't reconnected and then finally last week they said it would be fixed by the end of the day on Friday," she said.
"It was up and running again Friday morning."
Ms Bullen has repeatedly voiced her concerns over the lack of phone connection at Scotts Creek.
Last year she told The Standard her mother had a fall and did not have access to a phone as her landline was not working. Fortunately, another family member was with her at the time.
"The sooner we can have phone coverage, the better," she said.
"It is just ridiculous that in this day and age you can get better mobile coverage in the Simpson Desert than in Scotts Creek."
Telstra regional general manager for Steve Tinker said a technical issue at a small roadside exchange impacted seven Telstra fixed line services and two non-Telstra fixed line services for 14 days this month.
"Once the fault was identified and a replacement part installed, all services were restored on February 14," he said.
"Telstra apologises for any inconvenience to residents during this time."
Mr Tinker said Telstra had council approval to begin construction on a mobile base station at Jancourt East, and hoped to have the project completed by the middle of the year.
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