DARTMOOR Forest Parish Council will negotiate a sponsorship agreement with BT if its challenge to the company's proposal to remove the telephone kiosk in Postbridge proves unsuccessful.

The consultation period with local authorities over the proposed telephone box closures in West Devon ended on September 1. West Devon could lose 41 of its 188 boxes under the proposals, including the one at Postbridge.

Very close to the deadline, BT came up with two options for councils — to adopt a kiosk or sponsor it. In the former, all equipment would be taken out and the kiosk sold to the council for £1, which was suitable where the construction was considered to be an icon.

The second option was sponsorship at £500 a year. In that case BT would continue to maintain a working kiosk.

Parish clerk Ann Inman said the Postbridge kiosk was 'very well used' and the council had not been party to the criteria for removing kiosks.

'There is no signal for normal networks to use a mobile phone in the area and when the landline phones go down, as they do regularly as it is a wet area, people use the public phone,' she said.

The parish council hopes BT will reconsider, but it has been assured by BT via West Devon Borough Council that it would not jeopardise its position if it said it wanted to declare its willingness to sponsor the kiosk.

'It was something of a dilemma. We had not heard from BT in response to our challenge that is well used and should be taken off the list, but we were assured we would not be putting ourselves in a difficult position by offering sponsorship,' Mrs Inman said.

It is not expected that any decision on the kiosk's future will be announced by BT until the New Year.