Phone boxes

[Monica Reyes]

I see they are taking away the phone box in Oldfield Road, they also had another one on their lorry, were there others that were going to be removed?

It's a sad sight really, but I suppose the world and his dog has a mobile now.........

[Yokel]

It’s sad but a comment on the times – more people have mobiles, and the phone company is a profit making organisation so therefore has no moral obligation to its consumers.   
I’m interested to know what they are being replaced with though?  Are they just capping the foundations and leaving a two foot square of bare concrete?   If that’s the case it would be a good idea to put a brass plaque on them saying “On this day, October 22nd 2008, the Oldfield Road phonebox was removed” etc etc. Then we could set up a site and start heritage tours of old phone box locations.

(it’d be funny if it didn’t have a ring of truth to it)

[Soup]

They could all be labelled as Tardis landing sites 

[hermes2007]

What is sad is that it could have been saved if even a few people had bothered to write to the Town Council to ask them to keep it. Not everyone has a mobile and the usage figures were quite reasonable. But that's Westbury ...

[Yokel]

I didn’t bother to write to anyone about it – I think the design of phone boxes is ugly and the state they are kept in (not helped by vandals etc) is usually a disgrace – that one covered in stickers and ads about cheap calls to Poland.

Regarding losing them – well, it does get to the point with all technologies that a public version becomes redundant – Westbury doesnt have a well we all go to to collect water, a man doesn’t come round on a cart offering to sharpen your knives and vacuum your carpets, and (bringing it up to date) who bothers with “internet cafes” any more?   

Its sad, but its what happens.

[Monica Reyes]

Now it has gone, along with the adjacent tree, I can see Selwood squeezing in another bungalow there, just enough room now

[Mike Hawkins]

What is sad is that it could have been saved if even a few people had bothered to write to the Town Council to ask them to keep it. Not everyone has a mobile and the usage figures were quite reasonable. But that's Westbury ...

The Town Council did object to this removal during the consultation, but were told that it was to be removed full stop.

The other box to be removed, Eden Vale, we were told could only be saved if we, the Town Council, paid a minimum of £500 per year to keep it (BT would, of course, kept all the revenues!). Thus BT were able to pay out over £800 million to shareholders in the last year!!

We felt, quite correctly in my view, that to start paying town precept money for something like this would have been the thin end of the wedge. What would then happen, Electricity Board not lighting the streets unless we paid extra, Gas Board not laying new mains unless we contributed to their maintainence, etc, etc??

[hermes2007]

I know you tried Mike I was thinking more of the general public, as it was in the local papers. I think you make a good point about not setting a precedent - co-payments seems to be the new buzzword in the NHS (and soon Social Services) but it seems a bit much for the town to have to pay towards what were once basic services. I notice some Councils are now trying to run local Post Offices to save them - but it is a slippery slope and you can easily see the new Unitary Councils saying the Town Council should pay towards street lights and decent rubbish collections.

[LONDONER]

Did you know you can buy the old phone boxes, there is a Bt sales department that deals with them, the make great shower cubicles.

[Yokel]

Yeah you can pee in them just like in real life!!!!

[hermes2007]

Could this be the solution to the lack of public loo's - buy up old BT phone boxesx...