CALLS to save two of Westbury’s BT phone kiosks from the scrapheap will be made again by town councillors.
Members at a recent planning and resources meeting heard BT was once again consulting local authorities over the proposed removal of 34 “very low usage’ boxes across the country.
The council previously objected to the removal of the payphones at the junction of Brook Lane and The Ham, and at Oldfield Park, after BT notified Wiltshire Council that they had been earmarked for removal, and Wiltshire Council sent the town council a consultation.
Cllr Ian Cunningham said, ”BT are going to keep bringing this back to us until we miss it. I think last time we said one should be kept.”
Reasons given by BT in the consultation for why pinpointed kiosks should not be removed, included the amount of privately rented or council housing in the area, suggesting people on a lower income without access to mobile and fixed telephones, payphones in areas of poor mobile phone coverage, or the call box being near a known accident black-spot.
Cllr Mike Kettlety said, “We made our views perfectly clear last time and we stand by them.”
Cllr Jane Russ added. “We asked to keep both the phone boxes, so we go back to BT and say the same.” They are in our lower areas of social deprivation,” confirmed cllr Gordon King.
The clerk said she would dig out the previous information the town council sent to Wiltshire Council regarding the two kiosks they wanted to keep, and link their comments to the criteria they got from BT.
Members voted unanimously in favour.
