A decision to decommission the only phone box in the whole of the Calstock parish has been deferred for six months after parish councillors discovered that the coin box in the phone was blocked.

Last month, Calstock Parish Council learned that they could ‘adopt’ the phone box on Calstock Quayside and Calstock In Bloom expressed an interest in repurposing the phone box as an honesty library.

A call history showed six free calls had been made over a 12-month period, five of which were to the speaking clock.

The council sought the views of the community on whether to keep it as a working phone box or whether to repurpose it as a community asset.

On February 22 ward members posted a report on the Calstock Community Forum Facebook page and 184 people voted in the poll with 61% of those voting for the phone box to be repurposed as a community asset and 39% wanting to keep it.

Following the outcome of the poll, the ward members have since established that the coin box in the phone box was blocked and couldn’t take coins which could be the explanation behind no paying calls being made from the phone box. The phone is now operational for paying calls.

Councillor Alastair Tinto stated: ‘We feel that decommissioning it is an irreversible once and for all step. We took note of those who urged us to keep it for emergency calls and in case the mobile networks fail.’

At a council meeting last week, Cllr Tinto proposed that the parish council defer a decision on the phone box for six months and review it again then. The council voted in favour of the proposal and ward members are going to publicise its existence and BT will be repainting it.