Highlands' fling with the phone box isn't over yet

Published on Tuesday 3 June 2008 22:50

ONLY a few years ago, making a phone call outside the home meant queuing, usually in the rain, at the local kiosk clutching a pile of coins.

Before the mobile became omnipresent, the phone box was a necessity. News of births and deaths was reported from their cramped environs, teenage love could blossom outwith the earshot of parents and they gave homesick travellers access to a friendly voice.

The inevitable tapping on the door from the impatient "call waiting" outside only highlighted their importance.

At that time, there seemed to be a payphone on each street corner and in every village. But over the years the cabinets became less attractive; some had dodgy numbers scrawled on their walls and even dodgier smells in the corner.

But 90 per cent of the UK adult population now has a mobile phone, and the need for payphones has dramatically fallen.

According to BT, usage has halved in the past two years and calls are still declining by 20 per cent a year. Almost 60 per cent are now unprofitable, with nearly 6,000 phones making less than one call per month.

There are still 62,000 kiosks across the UK, 30,000 fewer than in 2002. In Scotland there were 11,700 eight years ago, but now there are only 5,883 – and more than 1,000 of these could disappear soon.

BT plans to remove 482 kiosks which have another situated nearby, while it is consulting with councils on shutting down a further 632.

An initial consultation in the Highlands, where 194 phone boxes are under threat, closed last week. Highland Council will publish responses on its website from today, ahead of producing a report by 26 June.

Campaigners say they will lose a lifeline as well as another symbol of a bygone era.

Rhoda Grant, a Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, said while the move was an inevitable reflection of the use of mobiles, some areas have no or poor mobile phone reception.

She said: "Parts of the Highlands are remote and the lack of a phone box in such areas could become critical in the event of a road, maritime or mountain accident, where there is no mobile signal.

"The time taken to alert the emergency services can become a matter of life or death."

Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey said that although more people were using mobiles, BT had a duty to put social needs first when deciding phone boxes' future.

Residents in Redcastle, on the Beauly Firth near Inverness, are fighting plans to remove their iconic red box, which is the centre point of a garden and picnic area.

They are also investigating a community buy-out to ensure it is retained.

George Bethune, who lives locally, said: "It's still well used and is a focal point for the village and we don't want to lose it."

A campaign has also started in Shieldaig in Wester Ross.

Alice Maclennan, secretary of the local community council, said: "(The phone box] is used about 1,200 times a year, which is a lot for a small village.

"The main reason for its retention is mobile phone reception is extremely poor here.

"Most of the houses here are holiday homes and some don't have landlines.

"The payphone is a public service."

Last night, a spokesman for BT Scotland said the firm was committed to providing a public payphone service, but as usage drops it had reviewed and rationalised boxes in line with demand.

He added: "If a local authority identifies a real social need we will not remove a particular kiosk.

"However, in Scotland payphone usage has fallen by more than half in the last two years alone, and the demand for payphones continues to fall."

Far away, famous and far from cheap to run

THE remotest payphone in Scotland is on Fair Isle, the most isolated inhabited island in the UK. BT says it, along with all other island kiosks, is not under threat despite their low usage.

&149 The most famous, and most called payphone is at Pennan on the Aberdeenshire coast where the cult film Local Hero was shot. Film buffs ask friends and family to call them when they are visiting the kiosk.

In the film, Burt Lancaster phoned the box from the US to ask one of his employees if he could see the sky – he was looking for the Northern Lights. In reality the payphone was not actually used in the film; a dummy box was placed closer to the village pier and the real one was temporarily turned into a small shed.

&#149 Overall, 350,000 calls are still made each day from call boxes, with 5 per cent of adults saying they have used a BT payphone in the last month.

However, BT says more than 75 per cent of payphones on which it is consulting earn less than 100 per year and more than half take less than one call per week.

&#149 It costs an average 1,000 a year to maintain a payphone and last year crime and vandalism cost 10 million.