UK NEWS

AXE FALLS ON RURAL RED PHONE BOXES

Red phone boxes: Tourist attraction

Saturday October 4,2008

By Sara Dixon

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(4)

BT has been accused of cultural vandalism for trying to scrap some of Britain’s last remaining red phone boxes.

The company has applied for permission to remove 21 of the old-style boxes in one of the prettiest parts of the country.

But the local council has branded the move outrageous and is trying to have them listed by English Heritage.

BT wants to remove 35 boxes across the Wealden area, 21 of them the classic K6 design from 1935. It was the first red phone kiosk to be widely used outside London.

The design, commissioned to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V, was the brainchild of architect Giles Gilbert Scott.

Ironically, one of the phone boxes at risk is in Scott’s home village of Ninfield, East Sussex.

Wealden district councillor Roy Galley, who is leading the campaign to block BT’s plans, said: “It’s things like our red phone boxes and pillar boxes that help attract tourists. They are symbols of Britain. BT is a big enough company,

it should be contributing to preserving such examples.

“Giles Gilbert Scott used to cycle around the country lanes here and would sit and make sketches in the villages. There is no doubt he was influenced by the beauty of the area.”

Edward Dawson, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “The red phone box is part of Britain. BT is riding roughshod over the past for the sake of money.”

But in an age of mobile phones, BT says the boxes have to go to cut costs.

Many of the boxes BT wants to do away with are in picture-postcard settings, alongside village shops or pubs in conservation zones.

Wealden District Council is applying to have its boxes listed so BT will be unable to remove them.

Philip Davies, of English Heritage, said it had been flooded with requests from across the UK to list red boxes.

He said: “We have had 450 applications to list red phone boxes and that number is rising by the week as people are concerned about their future.

“We are working with BT to keep them even if there is little operational use for them.”

BT is carrying out a nationwide closure scheme, blaming the rise in mobile phone use. In 2002 there were 95,000 phone boxes across the country. Over the past decade BT has removed 31,000.

A BT spokeswoman said: “Pay phone removal is nothing new. We’ve been consulting local authorities for some months now.”

Under a BT scheme, councils can adopt a phone box with the phone removed for £1 a year, or sponsor them to remain active by paying £500 a year towards their upkeep.

There are only 12,000 of the 1935 design left – more than 2,500 of them already listed.

They are symbols of Britain

Wealden district councillor Roy Galley

SAD BUT TRUE

04.10.08, 10:02pm

Like the Country soon to be doomed to posterity.

• Posted by: RobertG • Report Comment

I’LL TELL WHAT CULTURAL VANDALISM IS

04.10.08, 4:57pm

It is the mindless yobbish trashing of the phone boxes using whatever is to hand – sticks bottles, stones, bricks you name it - with a few dabs of paint and a smattering of graffiti to finish it off.
I am all for keeping the iconic phone boxes but only if the Government gets a grip (preferably by the throat) of the feral wasters causing thousands of pounds worth of damage which is reflected in my phone bills.

It is an absolute scandal that we have got ourselves into a situation where teenage anarchy seems to be a problem we are incapable or unwilling to tackle or solve.

• Posted by: G0LDENARR0W • Report Comment