Vulnerable residents of a New Elgin housing complex claim they have been “left to rot” without access to a potentially life-saving emergency alarm.
The 16 occupants of the special bungalows in Teinland Place all have medical conditions or ailments that hinder their mobility.
But despite moving in nearly three weeks ago, the residents have no phone lines – meaning if they fall, or get into difficulty, they have no access to help.
Mobile phone reception in the area is patchy, and many of the tenants rely on their landline and internet – which hooks up to an emergency response alarm – to feel safe in their homes or to get attention.
Now however, they have been told they may have to wait until next month to be connected to the telephone grid, leaving many of them fearing for their lives.
Jeni Jeynes claimed she almost died after falling on a knife, prompting her to call BT to beg them to urgently connect the properties.
The 45-year-old, who suffers from a variety of chronic conditions which limit her movement, including hyper-mobility syndrome, arthritis, muscular spasms akin to MS and nerve damage in her spine, said: “I was lucky. My falling on the knife without that alarm system, if the blade had been 1mm further in, I would be dead.
“We have nothing, and there is people more vulnerable on this street than me.
“These people really do need their alarm systems.
“The internet is my life. I can’t go out to make friends, shop or anything.
“We are literally looking after ourselves and we all have serious medical problems.
“It’s just criminal to move us all in without before the houses are ready and then just leave us to rot.
“BT phoned and said I was only going to get updated on August 20 and now they are saying September 20.”
During the call, Mrs Jeynes said BT had blamed Moray Council and developers Springfield Properties – who have paid the connection fees to BT Openreach – for the delay.
But Springfield managing director Innes Smith said the telephone giant was “100% to blame” for the problem, and accused of the firm of neglecting their responsibilities.
Mr Smith said: “It is a disgrace. BT are 100% to blame for this. We have encountered this across the whole of Scotland.
“It is 100% squarely BT not doing the work they are supposed to.
“We have had this problem with other sites across Scotland, and it is just not good enough.
“They had proper notification. We paid them all our fees for the connections.
“Their excuses are rubbish. Roads don’t get adopted for at least a year, that’s standard practice.
“It’s simply BT not being ready and not having the right infrastructure in place.”
Last night a spokesman for BT Openreach said: “The installation of a new network at this site has been dogged by a series of delays for which we would like to apologise.
“We’ve now escalated the completion of the work and will be working as fast as we can to get residents connected.”