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Ross councillors react angrily to BT's repeated payphone removal bid against backdrop of coronavirus pandemic


By Scott Maclennan

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Phone boxes in the highlands are at risk of removal.
Phone boxes in the highlands are at risk of removal.

Highland Council has sent back an unusually scathing response to BT’s proposal to remove 107 of the 348 public call boxes across the Highland area.

Under Ofcom guidelines, the local authority is responsible for coordinating a consultation and responding on behalf of the Highlands.

Based upon consultation feedback, the council objected to 65 public call boxes being removed and expressed support for a further three being adopted by the local community.

"I am not at all pleased that this has had to be dealt with so shortly after we previously responded to the consultation last year.” - Cllr Bill Lobban

But the recent consultation, coming as it did over the summer during the Covid pandemic and just nine months after a similar consultation, sparked an acidic response from the council.

Strathspey and Badenoch Councillor and convener Bill Lobban said: “Local call boxes act as a life-line in our remote rural areas with poor, inconsistent, or sometimes no mobile signal, and for communities experiencing greater levels of poverty, where some may not always be able to afford use of a mobile phone.

“I am pleased there was support across the chamber that we send our robust response to BT as I am not at all pleased that this has had to be dealt with so shortly after we previously responded to the consultation last year.”

Even council officers appeared to kick back at the engagement noting that 49 per cent of the payphones in the current consultation had been considered for removal in 2019 when “clear reasons were given for why they must be retained.”

Councillors lined up to criticise BT for the timing of the request to remove the call boxes as well as the location of many of the phone boxes they wished to remove.

A number of members noted that it would be false to suggest that everyone had a working mobile phone and even if they did sometimes coverage in unavailable so there was a need for them in emergency situations in both rural and urban areas.

Dingwall Councillor Margaret Paterson said: “I just don’t know what they are playing at because they are putting forward the same phone boxes time and time again.

“I have been fighting for the one at Knockfarrel, this is the third time, there is a group that wanted to adopt it, they have a charity trust and they wanted to install a defibrillator due to the high number of walkers in the area.”

Lochaber Councillor Allan Henderson agreed, saying: “The proverbial death by a thousand cuts, if you don’t get the answer you want then they keep coming back until you do get it and this is what we are seeing.

“We have made the case that these boxes may only be making the odd calls but those occasional calls may be the ones that save a life because they are in very remote, rural areas with poor phone signal.”

While Tain’s Cllr Derek Louden said: “I think what is being done is a bit of an affront to democracy.

“There isn’t much point in coming here and asking for our opinion and the public’s opinion and ignoring it completely and trying to repeat the process on a perennial basis until you get the result you want.

"There just doesn’t seem much point to me, I don't know whether Ofcom have a position on this but if they don’t they should have.”

Related: Payphones under threat at 110 sites across the Highlands

Black Isle community welcomes reprieve after campaign

New chapter for Ross-shire phone box


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