The BBC's John Thorne: "Inevitable change of status"

The 97-year-old Kingston Communications company already provides its 185,000 customers with the cheapest local calls in the country and it is now seeking to expand into new areas of telecommunications.

The only way the firm, valued at �500m, can afford to proceed is if the sole shareholder - Hull City Council - agrees to sell all or some of its shares to raise fresh investment.

Hull's Labour councillors have fiercely resisted giving up what they term "social ownership" of the company.

However, government pressure and company ambitions have forced their hand and it seems likely that they will agree to at least a partial sale of shares on Wednesday.

Hull's unique telephone system, with its distinctive cream-coloured public call boxes, is the only survivor of experiments in town hall telephone systems that took place at the turn of the century.