Highland Council opposing BT's plans to axe every single payphone in Badenoch and Strathspey
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Highland Council is expected to object to BT’s plans to axe all of its public payphones in Badenoch and Strathspey, and has launched a scathing attack on the telecoms giant over the move.
It comes just nine months after the conclusion of the previous round of consultations on cuts to the region’s network, as the Strathy had revealed.
Council officials have blasted BT for trying to carry out more cost-saving closures during a time of “national crisis”, when the local authority is already stretched battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Fourteen local payphones are at risk of being axed.
But with the council backing up local objections to their removal, they should now all be saved.
The phone kiosks at threat locally are in Aviemore (Dalfaber, Milton Park and Grampian Road); Carrbridge, Kincraig, Kingussie, Newtonmore, Laggan, Ralia, Glenmore, Cairngorm Mountain, Grantown, Cromdale and Tomintoul.
There were 84 objections made against the local closures with 40 alone to safeguard the famous red phone box at Cairngorm Mountain.
In all, BT is proposing to axe 107 of the 348 public payphones across the Highlands.
Based upon consultation feedback, the council is proposing to exercise its local veto to save 65 payphones and advises a further three be “adopted” by their local communities. Forty phones would be lost as there were no objections.
Councillors are being asked to support the recommendations at the full meeting of the council this Thursday at Inverness headquarters.
Council officers have not held back in their criticism of BT in their report.
Ewen McIntosh, the council’s localism and engagement coordinator, states: “The timing of BT’s proposals is extremely disappointing and ill-considered as it has required the council to consult with community and public sector partners who are largely preoccupied with community response and resilience work related to Covid-19.
“This is an inappropriate use of stretched public sector resource and an added unnecessary concern for communities at a time of national crisis.”
He added: “Not only does BT’s consultation follow nine months after the conclusion of the previous consultation, but it includes payphones which were previously considered for removal.
“Fifty-two of the public call boxes within scope of the 2020 consultation were already consulted on in 2019.
“This includes 46 payphones for which Highland Council exercised its right to a local veto on removal in 2019, based on community representations received.
“BT is therefore seeking to disregard 84 per cent of these recent vetoes on removal. This is in contravention of OfCom requirements that BT must first request a review of such decisions by the council and OfCom should it wish to disregard them.
“The response also highlights concerns regarding the apparent disregard for community need and Public Service Obligation arising from its proposal for certain areas of the Highlands.
“This includes Alness, a town with higher than average levels of complex social deprivation, and the entire Badenoch and Strathspey ward, a large geographical area which receives significant numbers of hillwalkers and tourists, who depend upon access to public call boxes in an emergency.”
Local Highland councillor Bill Lobban (Independent) said he and his colleagues were unanimously opposed to “all of these ludicrous proposals to decimate our telephone box network”.
He said: “These boxes are essential especially in areas where mobile reception is poor or non-existent. Purely relying on mobile communication could cost lives.”
Fellow councillor Muriel Cockburn (SNP) said: “This is not about numbers of people using them it is about public safety in an emergency.”
Local councillor John Bruce (Scottish Conservatives) said: “There are many areas with poor mobile signal which can vary depending on the mobile service company and where BT should retain the payphones. Another aspect is battery loss of power.”
The majority of objections are on the basis of a lack of reliable mobile phone signal but others also include:
n Public safety – at locations near hillwalking area, roads and open water.
n Tourist use.
n For residents without mobile phone access particularly in areas with high levels of social deprivation.
Many public responses claimed the timing of BT’s proposals was “inappropriate and perhaps disingenuous” and said average use must reasonably be expected to decline during a nationwide lockdown particularly for rural and roadside kiosk locations.
BT has said the proposed removals is due to a huge fall in usage of payphones of over 90 per cent in the last decade with 98 per cent of the UK having either 3G or 4G coverage.
The company says it is now possible to “network roam” and call the emergency services even when there is no credit or coverage from the caller’s own mobile provider.
