Stuck at home during the latest lockdown has proved even more challenging for some residents, as they have suffered a month of broadband issues with provider Virgin Media.

On top of home-schooling and work pressures, neighbours in Bernards Heath have endured broadband speeds as slow as 10mbps during the working day, well below the guaranteed speed of 50mbps.

Resident Norman Leinster contacted the Herts Ad after reaching the end of his tether: "Virgin Media are not delivering what they market and are providing an incredibly poor customer service. It's not only affecting me but many others as well.
"I have spent over 90 minutes on the phone to Virgin Media customer services and technical support only to find out there was an area fault causing this."

St Albans MP Daisy Cooper has now picked up their fight: "Residents are rightly angry and frustrated that they've experienced huge disruption with Virgin Media broadband for weeks on end and after demanding a high-level meeting, I'm pleased that I've finally got to the bottom of it.

"I finally secured a meeting with senior representatives of Virgin Media this morning. They have confirmed that there are two problems they are trying to fix: internet congestion where there is a bottleneck of demand, and other repair and upgrade works.

"I have secured an undertaking from Virgin Media that they will do everything possible to complete the works by the end of this week, Friday February 19, and will keep me updated so I can in turn inform residents of progress.

"Families are incredibly stretched with the demands of home-working and home-schooling and I've left Virgin Media in no doubt that their failure to communicate with residents both in advance and during the works is completely unacceptable.

"I have also successfully insisted that rather than asking each resident to apply for compensation on a case-by-case basis, that Virgin Media pro-actively contacts all affected residents who have contacted me. As such, I would ask that any affected resident contacts my office with their customer details which I can pass them on to Virgin Media on their behalf."

Virgin Media has been contacted for comment.