Future of Laggan public payphone is left hanging
It has not taken long for the first SOS to be received following an appeal yesterday on BT's alleged bid to close more payphones in the strath.
Laggan Community Council has reported that its kiosk has been cut-off without any consultation despite the watchdog objecting to the move.
Highland Council has aired concerns that the telecoms giant could be embarking on a third attempted cull of the network in little more than a year.
Yesterday council convener Bill Lobban appealed for locals to contact him if their local kiosks were closed for 'repair', had no connection or had been removed.
Colin Morgan, chairman of Laggan Community Council, told the Strathy: "Despite the consultation and the various objections the community council submitted, this telephone service has been cut off.
"We are not sure when this happened, however, I checked the box on Saturday (November 21) and there was no line connecting.
"The message says on the phone says 'Payphone not commissioned' and there is no dial tone.
"The BT notice inside the box says 'We’re thinking about removing this payphone'."
Mr Morgan added: "The phone box is situated on the East Highland way where mobile phone reception is notoriously patchy for all providers."
A BT spokesperson said: “We have listened to the community and will not be removing this payphone.
"We also thank Laggan Community Council for alerting us to the phone line issue as the fault hadn’t been reported to us. We’ll get the phone fixed as soon as possible.
"To report a fault or damage to any of our payphones, call 0800 661 610 or email customer.serv.payphones@bt.com ."
Residents urged to look out for attempts by BT to remove public payphones in strath
