'Local veto' stops phone box closures - for now

I AM pleased to hear that the Deane council is formally objecting to the proposed closure by BT of many public telephone boxes in the area.
BT wants to remove four call boxes from the Blackdown ward which I represent, and two more in Ford Street, Wellington, and Sampford Moor, an area in which I am campaigning to become the county councillor next year.
I am pleased the council has taken up my suggestion of using what is known as ‘The Local Veto’ to object to BT’s plans, although I was a little surprised the council did not know about this power until I pointed it out.
All six of the above proposed closures are being formally opposed, and this effectively means BT cannot remove these public call boxes.
There is a protracted appeals process which BT could pursue, but their only argument is that they are losing money on these phone boxes - and that is not actually any grounds for closure.
When the regulating body, Ofcom, last reviewed BT’s ‘universal service obligation’ under which BT has to maintain public call boxes, it decided that the cost of doing so was not overly onerous.
Therefore, for BT to argue it is not making money out of the call boxes on the Blackdown Hills and the rural area around Wellington is simply not a good reason for taking them away.
When I asked BT for the actual financial figures in relation to these particular phone boxes, they refused to provide them.
As many people will discover when they visit the Blackdowns, it is very difficult to obtain a mobile phone signal, and if there was an emergency they would have to rely on finding a call box.
I have also asked the council to go one step further and look at making formal requests for BT to instead begin replacing phone boxes which have previously been removed, or to introduce new ones.
Bishopswood, for instance, does not have a public phone box anywhere in the community nor nearby.
I think that every community should have at least one public call box available for people to use if there was any kind of emergency or breakdown in the residential phone network.

• The photograph shows me at the public phone box in Stapley, which is on BT’s closure list.

Red phone boxes under threat from cost-cutting BT

BT has just announced it wants to remove the last remaining red telephone boxes in many of the Blackdown Hills communities.
Four call boxes would be lost from the Blackdown ward which I represent on Taunton Deane Borough Council, and many more in the wider area around Wellington, where I am campaigning to become the county councillor next year.
As a businessman and a homeowner who gave BT the boot many months ago because of its appalling customer service and billing incompetence, I perhaps ought to declare an interest here.
That said, I am absolutely appalled that BT has suggested these phone boxes should be removed.
In nearly every case, it will leave whole communities without any access at all to a public telephone.
When I challenged BT, they were not even able to tell me how much use is made of these call boxes because they said they did not keep proper records.
They tell us they want to close them because they are losing money, but BT has a public service obligation and I am demanding they honour that obligation.
I do not just want to see this closure programme stopped, I want to see BT restoring many of the call boxes they have already removed.
I believe every community should have at least one public call box which people can use in the event of an emergency.
BT claim that most people have a mobile phone, but my phone does not have a signal in many parts of the Blackdowns, and if my car broke down, for example, I would have to find the nearest phone box to call the AA.
I have pointed out to our Deane council leader, Ross Henley, that we have the ability to make it very difficult for BT to close the phone boxes.
As a council, we can formally object and take BT through a pretty lengthy appeals process where every proposed phone box closure would be examined very carefully.
There is no question in my mind that we should do everything possible to resist these iniquitous phone box closures.
BT is presently consulting on the proposed closures and I shall be putting the case as strongly as possible against this move.

• The photographs show (TOP) me outside the phone box in Ford Street, just outside Wellington, which is on BT’s closure list, (MIDDLE) the under-threat phone box in Blagdon Hill, and (BOTTOM) the cobwebs which show the Stapley phone box has not been used in a very long time.