Phone box closures: no BT rep at public meeting

3.54.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 15th Jul 2008

Liberal Democrat Councillors took part this afternoon in the public consultation meeting on the proposed closure of a number of telephone boxes in Bath and North East Somerset. This meeting was part of the Enterprise and Economic Development Overview and Scrutiny panel meeting.

Councillor Nigel Roberts (Odd Down) commented, "The proposals by BT to remove phone boxes across the district do not appear to take into account the importance of phone boxes for use in emergencies such as accidents or when batteries run down or pay as you go mobile credit runs out. There are also areas in the district where there is practically no mobile phone signal such as Midford Valley.

"The provision of phone boxes should not only be a matter of profit but of social responsibility.

"I was very disappointed that BT did not send a representative to this meeting. There were many questions raised of a factual nature which we were not able to have answered."

Councillor Colin Darracott (Walcot) added, "It would have been useful to know what proportion of the calls made from the phone boxes under threat of closure were to 999 or breakdown services. The issue was also raised at the meeting that phone boxes are frequently used by children and by those who do not have access to a mobile phone.

"Without the answers to these sorts of questions, it is impossible to know which phone boxes are really worth saving and which could be closed without an adverse impact on the community."