'We can't even make a 999 call when the power goes'

Residents of a village in the North York Moors have said power cuts can leave them cut off and unable to make even emergency calls, and have questioned ongoing work to upgrade the phone network.

People living in Goathland say blackouts cause the mobile mast and broadband connections to go down, leaving only those with analogue landlines able to make calls.

Cecily Fearnley, who lives in the village, said she feared ongoing work to replace the old copper phone line network with a new broadband-based connection could "create a serious public safety risk for rural communities".

A BT spokesperson said the technology upgrade was essential but that it was committed to supporting customers "every step of the way" and there was "a solution for everyone".

Ms Fearnley, who runs a restaurant and holiday cottage in Goathland, said the village had experienced frequent power cuts in 2025, which caused "a whole spectrum of knock on effects".

"If the power goes out, the mobile signal goes down, internet broadband will go down and the house phone will go down," she said.

"So the bottom line to that means it's a complete blackout. People cannot call 999, they cannot check on vulnerable neighbours, they cannot run their business."

She said when Goathland's mobile mast had been offline some residents had found their mobile phones did not even offer the "emergency call only" function.

Reg Peirson, a farmer in the village, had his landline switched to broadband last year.

He said while there were "pockets of mobile signal" in the village, he often struggled to connect, making the prospect of a power cut "quite scary".

"It leaves me feeling extremely vulnerable," he said.

"You hardly dare do anything in case you're going to injure yourself, because you can't summon help."

Some mobile masts have back-up batteries or generators to keep them running for a few hours in the event of a power cut, but the one in Goathland does not.

Shelia Calvert, from Goathland Tea Rooms, said she felt it "shouldn't be too difficult" to put something in place to keep the mast running for longer.

"You would think that would be an option - [power cuts] have a drastic effect at the moment because if people need help or need to call a doctor, they have no way of doing it," she said.

For Ms Fearnley, a back-up mobile mast battery is "one solution" but one that would "only help those people that have a mobile phone".

"There's a lot of people of a certain age in our village who rely on landlines," she said.

"The lights go off and it's scary because you think 'what if something happened right now in the midst of a storm'."

She added her fear is "the infrastructure is not in place" to keep everyone in the village connected in a power cut, when the digital switchover is completed in 2027.

She said she worried that the lack of resolution so far was due to organisations "not having a true understanding about what lots of rural communities have to live with".

She added: "I feel like something really awful would have to happen for people to really start listening."

BT said the move to a new system was needed due to old technology being "increasingly unreliable and no longer fit for purpose".

A spokesperson said it offered a number of solutions for those who needed extra support, including free in-home assistance, battery back-up units and hybrid phones that could stay connected during a power outage.

However, Ms Fearnley and a number of other villagers said they believe more can be done to keep Goathland connected and that they intend to lobby Ofcom to intervene.

According to the regulator providers are required to to take all "appropriate and proportionate" measures to ensure "uninterrupted access" to emergency organisations.

Measures include supplying vulnerable customers who are dependent on their landline a battery backup free of charge, and mobile provider's taking responsibility to ensure their mobile masts have appropriate levels of power backup.

A spokesperson from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said Ofcome were "exploring further measures to improve the resilience of mobile services during power cuts, for the benefit of people wherever they live".

A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said it was aware customers in Goathland had experienced a number of power interruptions during 2025, with "the majority" caused by adverse weather.

It said alongside regular tree trimming to prevent vegetation falling on power lines work to enable engineers to restore power more quickly using "remote switching" was being carried out,

Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL), which owns Goathland's mast, said it had "escalated" villagers concerns directly to the Distribution Network Operator and requested that they investigate the power inconsistencies.

"We will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with them to support the restoration of reliable service," a spokesperson added.

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