Communities want to take over phone boxes from BT (From Swindon Advertiser)

Communities want to take over phone boxes from BT

8:00pm Thursday 4th December 2008

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By Ben Perrin »

PARISHES in Swindon are pressing ahead with plans to adopt their phone boxes.

Seven communities have made applications to maintain their iconic red booths as conservation areas.

There had been uproar when phone company BT gave villagers the choice of stumping up the money or risk losing them for good.

Parish councils could either adopt their phone boxes for £500 a year or spend £1 to keep the phone box without a phone line.

Since September BT have said they have been inundated with the £1 buy-out option across the south west.

Residents in the villages of Broad Blunsdon, Blunsdon St Andrew, Liddington, Lower Wanborough, Sevenhampton, Stanton Fitzwarren and Wroughton have all completed paperwork to adopt their kiosks.

They will expect to hear if their applications are successful in the new year.

Bill Jenkin, chairman of Sevenhampton Parish Council, said: “Many people in Sevenhampton wanted to keep the phone box as it’s a landmark of the village.

“It’s a focus point by a patch of grass near the green.

“If we can keep the phone box it could be used as an information point for residents.

“We completed the paperwork to adopt the phone box for £1 at the end of October and are still waiting to hear back from BT.

“I think a lot of villages have contacted BT wanting to keep theirs so they’re probably swamped with requests.”

The kiosk is a K6, a model dating from 1936 which was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

It is one of seven that Swindon Council has submitted to English Heritage for listed status.

Following a recommendation by English Heritage, the final decision as to whether they are included on the statutory list rests with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Some communities will just leave the boxes to serve as a bygone symbol from the 20th century to show how communication methods used to be.

BT has removed 30,000 phone booths across the country since 2002.

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