A business owner has said it is difficult for her to run her company as a nearby pub refurbishment has left her without signal in her shop.

The White Horse pub in Rottingdean's High Street closed at the end of August for refurbishment and the mast on top of it has stopped providing phone signal. 

Cassandra, who runs Cassie’s Cakes in the same street, said she has three phones in her shop, none of which have had signal for weeks.

“I am having to use wifi,” she told The Argus. “But if that goes down I will have no way of contacting anyone.

“The problem is when people are coming to collect their order I can’t go outside and tell them where to park because I can’t leave or I won't have wifi to contact customers.

“It makes things really difficult for me and it has done for weeks. It’s never good to pay for a service and not get anything so this is just not fair.”

Cassandra used to get signal from the mast on top of The White Horse but since it closed for refurbishment she has not has phone connection in her shop.

It comes after plans for a temporary mast at Marina Cliffs car park nearby were withdrawn in May this year as they received 17 objections.

Many objected to the loss of parking spaces the installation of the mast would cause, with one writing: “High Street traders badly need more visitors to the village and there is already a shortage of parking spaces. This car park is very well used for visitors to the beach and the village.”

Another said it would be “high, ugly, noisy and smelly.”

“I pay too much in household bills to have to put up with this,” they added.

The company responsible for the masts, Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL), said it had to vacate the pub on August 31 so the owners could refurbish it.

Another said the proposal “neglects to take into account the environmental situation at Rottingdean cliff top site.”

A spokesman for MBNL said: “The temporary mast was required to replace our existing site at The White Horse. We were required to relocate our services due to plans from the owners to undertake refurbishment works at the public house and were served legal notice to vacate by the building owner.

“The decommissioning of our equipment at The White Horse is near completion, however services ceased on August 31.

“As noted, a notice to install an emergency temporary installation at the car park in Marine Drive was provided to the local planning authority.

“This, in error was displayed on their planning portal as a planning application.

“While this has been removed from the planning portal, we are continuing to discuss this with them.

“We are undertaking the necessary due diligence to locate a new permanent site within the area, and we will, as always, continue to work closely with the local planning authority, councillors, and residents to do so.”