VODAFONE customers in Burford say they have had little or no mobile phone service for months.

Residents first complained about the poor signal at the start of June but have yet to see the problem solved.

David Cohen – a former mayor of the town, who runs the Burford Needlecraft shop in High Street with his wife Jan – said he had to spend hundreds of pounds using a landline phone, despite still paying his Vodafone contract.

In October, he switched to rival mobile firm EE after getting little response from Vodafone.

Mr Cohen, 64, said: “I couldn’t get a signal inside the shop, or outside, unless I walked up the hill.

“The reason I joined Vodafone was because they had a good service but EE has been far better.

“Not only was I not receiving phone calls but it was costing me landline charges on top of the contract.

“It’s just useless and their attitude annoyed us more than anything.”

Justin Evans, 42, has owned the Priory Restaurant in High Street for 20 years and said the service used to be much better.

Mr Evans said: “I’m having to use the landline a lot more, so I’m paying for two services.

“Even in the garden there’s no service.

“I would leave tomorrow if I could but I would have to pay off my contract.”

Derek Cotterill, the town’s representative on West Oxfordshire District Council, has led the protests to Vodafone.

He claimed that an employee from the company had finally admitted there was a problem with a mast at the start of November and told him the issue would probably not be resolved until early January.

Mr Cotterill, who has a £20 per month contract with Vodafone, said: “We were given no clear idea of when normal service would be resumed.

“We’re still in a state where we have a service that’s not as good as it used to be but Vodafone won’t release people from contracts.

“Vodafone needs to improve its customer relations because it’s appalling.

“They’re losing customers and are going to lose more as soon as contracts expire.

“It’s extremely frustrating, because on many occasions you want to make calls from around the town but you can’t.”

The town’s mayor, John White, said: “Occasionally we get a single bar, but that’s it. It was first-class beforehand.

“We want to see Vodafone do whatever is necessary to restore the service and stop taking money from people for a service they aren’t providing.”

Vodafone spokesman Jane Frapwell said: “We did have some signal problems back in July which were resolved and our records show that the local site is up and running and carrying traffic normally.”