Hundreds of public payphones in Scotland to be axed

Nearly one in five public payphones located north of the border are to be removed, according to BBC Scotland.

Hundreds of public payphones are to be removed from Scotland's streets.

BT has agreed to scrap more than 900 phone boxes across the country over the next three years.

Leaders at the phone company said usage had plummeted by 90 per cent over the last 10 years as more people rely on smart phones.

In Fife, 97 phone boxes are set to be scrapped under the plans.

According to the firm, some of the Scottish phone boxes are so little used that not one call was made from 700 of them over the past year.

However, campaigners insist they are a vital lifeline for communities in some rural areas of Scotland where the mobile phone signal is poor.

A spokesman for BT said: “We’re committed to providing a public payphone service but demand just isn’t there anymore.

“With usage declining by more than 90% in the last decade, we’ve continued to review and, where necessary, rationalise our payphone estate to continue to meet remaining customer demand and manage our costs.

“As an alternative to removal, we continue to actively promote the Adopt a Kiosk scheme to all councils whilst being committed to maintaining the payphones that remain.”