Community could adopt phone box for £1

A phone box due to be removed in Scarborough could be adopted by residents in the area for just a £1.

The phone has been "identified as the last public call box at a site, and North Yorkshire Council and the community now have the opportunity to support or object to the removal", according to Scarborough Town Council.

BT has begun a consultation process on its removal which gives communities the opportunity to adopt the box and repurpose it.

Thousands of communities have already turned phone boxes - mainly the traditional red ones - into libraries, food banks, and defibrillators through BT's Adopt a Kiosk scheme.

According to the company's website, BT cannot remove a last public call box if there have been 52 or more calls made from it in the past year or if there is other evidence demonstrating a reasonable level of community need.

As the firm has already placed its 90 day notice, North Yorkshire Council is advising the community to send comments on the potential removal and/or an intention to adopt the payphone for another use no later than 10 March.

Those should be sent to the council's planning policy and place team at county , according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

BT said requests to adopt the kiosk must be sent to it no later than 27 April.

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