RESIDENTS, community groups and organisations across Pershore are being invited to take ownership of one of the town’s telephone boxes which BT has deemed it no longer needs.
The telephone operator has taken the decision to discard its phone box on St Andrews Road, opposite the Plum Tree pub, after it was found to have only been used 104 times over the past year.
In a recent letter to Wychavon District Council, BT explained the use of payphones had decreased by 90 per cent in the last decade because of mobile phone usage, as well as the diminishing use for them to be needed in emergency situations.
There is currently a 90-day public consultation on the removal of 44 kiosks across the region, which ends on Friday, January 13.
Anyone interested in taking up one of the phone boxes would have to pay a nominal £1 fee and would then be responsible for its upkeep, contents and electricity supply.
Elsewhere across the county, discarded telephone boxes have been used for a range of purposes, including housing defibrillators and opening as ‘mini libraries’.
But the final decision on whether a phone box is adopted rests with BT.
Ann Dobbins, the clerk of Pershore Town Council, told The Observer: “The phone box is located in a residential area, so it has no particular importance to the town.
“Once BT has cleared the phone box out, it’s basically there just to look pretty. I know some villages have bought them and turned them into small libraries and other community needs, but that really does seem to happen on a village scale.
“Residents in the area are more than welcome to share their interest on the telephone box’s future at our next council meeting.”
The future of the phone box will be discussed at a Pershore Town Council meeting on Thursday (November 17) at 7.30pm.
Any residents, community groups or organisations wanting to register their interest should e-mail Mrs Dobbins at [email protected] or call her on 01386 561561 for more information.
