£8k to clean police boxes

LOTHIAN and Borders Police spend more than £8000 each year on the cleaning and maintenance of the force’s call boxes.

The force still owns 42 call boxes, and these are used regularly by both community officers and traffic wardens when they are going about their daily duties.

A total of £4289 is spent annually on cleaning the boxes, while the bill for ongoing repairs and maintenance comes to £4188.

Police chiefs said none of the 42 call boxes were rented out for commercial purposes.