Fears have been raised over an emergency telephone in a popular beauty spot in the Gower which has been out of action since last summer. The coastwatch in the Worm's Head area has said the emergency 999 phone being broken could lead to tragedy in the case of an out-of-hours emergency.
The National Coastwatch Institution, based in Worm's Head, said the phone has been out of order since last June and has yet to be fixed despite attempts to do so. It said in a post on Facebook: "If you succumb to some form of accident whilst in the vicinity of Worm's Head, I would suggest you have it during our opening and closing hours. You might have noticed that some mobile phone reception in the area around Worms Head is poor at best, if not impossible.
"Since June of last year the phone has been out of order. We have tried to resolve the situation with Swansea Council as they are responsible for the phone. No joy unfortunately. But, between the hours of 10am and 5pm you are safe."
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A spokesperson added: "Due to our location at Worm's Head, over a mile from the National Trust car park at Rhossili, the 999 phone is a necessity. We are on duty at the moment between 10am and 5pm and can and will respond to any emergency during those hours. When we open and close every day we have to inform the Coastguard at Milford Haven that the emergency 999 phone is still out of order. The phone line to us at Worm's Head from Rhossili village is an underground one, so we can only surmise that that is where the fault lies."
A Swansea Council spokesman insisted the authority had been in regular contact with the NCI and had attempted to help resolve issues with faulty equipment. A statement added: "Although the problem was initially fixed, there have further issues at this site. Since we were made aware of the latest issue, we have been working with BT Openreach and the line service provider to identify the source of the problem and get the issue resolved. We’re doing all we can to ensure repairs are carried out as soon as possible but are reliant on BT and the service provider to apply the fix and resolve technical issues.”
A spokesman for BT Openreach said: “One of our engineers has been out to try and help. He tested the Openreach phone line that connects to this equipment and everything is working as it should do. Hopefully this reassures the owners of the phone that once they repair the handset/equipment on the wall, everything should work as normal.”
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