Communities are being offered the chance to adopt an iconic red telephone box and putting it to good use.
Whether it’s to house a mini-library or a defibrillator, kiosks all over the country have been adopted by communities and put to a variety of good uses.
Now there are five in South Holland which British Telecom is putting up for adoption at the cost of £1.
A total of 200 of the red boxes are available across the East Midlands and the kiosks are forever associated with the UK landscape.
“With most people now using mobile phones, it’s led to a huge drop in the number of calls made from payphones. At the same time, mobile coverage has improved significantly in recent years due to investment in masts, particularly in rural areas,” said Sarah Walker BT Enterprise unit director for the Midlands.
“Thousands of communities have already come up with a fantastic array of ideas to re-use their beloved local phone box. Applying is quick and easy and we’re always happy to speak to communities about adopting our phone boxes,” she added.
In South Holland, the boxes are at East Bank, Wingland; Long Sutton Market Place; Church Gate, Spalding; outside the church, Holbeach High Street and Church Gate, Whaplode.
A BT spokesman added that there may be an occasional reasons why a particular box may not be able to be adopted, if it needed to be retained by BT for example.
As part of its plans to modernise its payphone estate, more than 400 payphones across towns and cities have been upgraded by BT to create Street Hubs, offering free ultrafast WiFi, free UK phone calls, USB device charging along with other services.
Communities can adopt a kiosk if they are a recognised body such as the parish council. They can also be adopted by charities or individuals if they own the land the kiosk is sited on.
For further details on Adopt a Kiosk, see the website www.bt.com/adopt
