BT HAS vowed to clear up the appearance of Evesham’s Telephone Exchange months after the town’s Mayor raised concerns about the ‘disgusting’ state of the building.
The Observer reported last year on Coun Fred Kaler’s outrage at BT’s lack of maintenance of the Abbey Road building – which he said was damaging the appearance of the town.
The outspoken Mayor pleaded with company bosses to cut the overgrowing grass, replace the tired window frames and fix the ‘dangerous’ brick wall at the front of the exchange.
It has since emerged talks were held earlier this month between Coun Kaler, representatives from the Vale of Evesham Civic Society and BT’s West Midlands’ Regional Facilities Service Manager, over action needed to be taken to improve the appearance of the Telephone Exchange.
At the meeting it was agreed that improvements would be made, including painting the window frames, cleaning up the stone work and repairing the roof and guttering.
Discussions were also held about the possibility of converting the fenced off garden area into community allotments. Investigations will also take place to see if the car park at the back of the exchange could be used by the public.
A spokesperson for BT said: “BT felt it was an extremely constructive and helpful meeting.
“We’re always keen to work with the local community where we can.
“We’re committed to maintaining our buildings and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by recent issues relating to the appearance of the exchange building and its surroundings.”
Coun Kaler said: “We met with representatives of BT and in my opinion it was a very fruitful meeting. I came away feeling that a great deal of progress had been achieved, bearing mind negative reposes from BT in the past.”
