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Swift and decisive action by a Suffolk district council – plus the support of numerous parish councils and other bodies – looks set to have saved no less than 28 rural phone boxes earmarked for removal by BT.
Councillors on Babergh District Council’s Strategy Committee yesterday (31st July) gave the thumbs up for officers to confirm with BT the list of phone boxes that should be retained – and the reasons for their retention.
In early April BT embarked on a consultation exercise identifying 43 phone boxes that the company believed should be removed due to their low usage levels. Babergh promptly informed the relevant parish councils and over 200 community groups requesting views as to whether they agreed with the closure – and evidence to the contrary if they did not.
According to Neil Henry, Babergh’s Economic and Community Development Manager, who co-ordinated the campaign “a very small number of councils were in agreement with BT, but the vast majority from Stratford St. Mary in the south to Thorpe Morieux in the north and from Chelmondiston in the east to Sudbury in the west felt that their phone boxes were essential services that just could not be lost”.
Data showed that many of the phone boxes were actually well used – with some having over 100 calls made from them in the course of a year.
“We will now be confirming the details of the 28 saved phone boxes with BT in the very near future” added Neil Henry.
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