Monkeybreath has told me there are no problems for my postcode.
I thank him/her for helping me.
The only option left is to call and pay through the nose for something that isn't our fault I suppose - who wants to go first

?
Why NTL can't just TRY the Poplar proxies and see that there is a problem after several of us have now reported it in this forum is beyond me however...
Cheers