Council fight to save phone boxes

A campaign is under way in south Suffolk to save 43 public phone boxes threatened with closure by BT.

Babergh District Council is encouraging parish and town councils to send them reasons for retaining the boxes.

BT has set a 90-day consultation due to end on 2 July 2008 and blames lack of use for wanting to remove the boxes.

The firm said it intends to remove the phone boxes on the list as soon as practicable after this date unless a good case is made to save them.

Worry and hardship

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the telecommunications regulator, has established the rules about what has to happen before a phone box can be removed.

Babergh council is to co-ordinate responses from parish and town councils and other community groups to give them a chance to pull together good reasons keeping the threatened boxes.

A council spokesman said arguments for retaining phone boxes could include the need for emergency calls, the lack of good mobile reception and the convenient location of existing phone boxes.

"Babergh is determined that local communities have the chance to voice their views on such a matter.

"For some it may not be a major issue. For others the loss of their phone box may cause real worry and hardship," he said.