Villagers adopt Black Isle’s red phone box for £1

VILLAGERS who battled to save their red phone box by putting up a human blockade around it have now adopted it for £1.

Residents in the Highland fishing community of Kilmuir on the Black Isle must now decide what to do with the iconic landmark – as it won’t have a working phone line.

The community council has adopted the phone box, which had not been used for three years, after staging a blockade when a crane arrived to collect it earlier his year.

They parked cars on each side as a barricade to prevent the driver from reaching the box.

BT suggested the village adopt it for £1, and the transaction has now taken place.

Resident Catherine MacRae said the community must now decide what to do with the box, adding: “So far we’ve had a few suggestions, including using it as a book swap and for displaying notices, but we’re still considering the options.

“The box will now stay put. We’re very glad our protest was successful. The red phone box is quite iconic. When people take photos of the village, they always include the box.

“Everybody here is very happy that it’s going to stay as it’s important to the village.”

Earlier this year, the residents had placed a “ring of steel” around the “K6” style box, one of the style designed by British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also worked on Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station.

The claimed the box was as important to Kilmuir as the one at Pennan is to the Banffshire people after it featured in the 1983 Burt Lancaster film Local Hero.

Calls from payphones have declined by more than 80 per cent over the past five years and continue to decline at more than 20 per cent year on year. Just three per cent of adults now use a payphone.