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Monday, July 21, 2008, 08:52
South Hams Council conservation bosses say the traditional red K6 telephone kiosk in Totnes High Street was listed as long ago as 1992.
But BT has put it on its hit list of 16 phone bosses across the South Hams which it intends to get rid of — some of which have already gone.
The telecommunications company has been forced to shelve its plans to get rid of the High Street telephone box for the time being.
But a BT spokesman said: “According to our records, it does not appear to have listed status.”
However, the company has no plans to delay axing two other kiosks in Totnes at Pathfields and Coronation Park, although it is prepared to consult with the public over getting rid of yet another one in Totnes at Swallowfields.
Totnes town councillor Pruw Boswell is trying to get BT to change its mind over all four of the telephone boxes.
And the matter is likely to be raised when town councillors meet for their general purposes meeting today.
She pointed out that many people in 'alternative' Totnes refuse to use mobile telephones on health grounds.
“We don't want to lose any of these kiosks,” she said. “Not everyone has a mobile telephone, particularly in a place like Totnes where many people are anti-mobile telephones.”
The Totnes High Street kiosk is one of the ones that was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935.
Its listing means that it has to be treated like a listed building and cannot be touched by BT unless the company gets listed building consent to get rid of it.
The telephone inside could be considered a protected fixture, depending how old it is. If it declared an unprotected fitting then BT could take it away and just leave an empty telephone box behind.
Mrs Boswell has taken photographs of all the telephone kiosks at risk in the town to show local conservation officers what kind they are and what state they are in.
BT wants to get rid of 64 rural and urban telephone kiosks across the South Hams.
The 16 on the same hit list as the Totnes kiosks do not even have to be consulted on because they are within 400 yards of another kiosk.
However the district council has been consulted over the other 48 which includes the Swallowfields kiosk.
A BT spokesman explained that the use of public payphones had been falling for years and had halved in the last two years alone.
He said that the company would not seek to remove any kiosk that was listed and said the company was looking into the matter of the Totnes High Street box before any further action was taken.
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