ELDERLY residents in Gunnislake could soon be facing a communication breakdown, following a proposal to scrap the local payphone, writes Chrissie Sumner.
The red phone box on King Street, which serves residents of the nearby Woodland Way sheltered housing estate, has already been rescued from the scrapyard once before. Now it appears its future once more hangs in the balance.
Lesley King, public relations manager for BT said: 'The rise in the number of home phone lines coupled with the increase in mobile phone usage has meant that we process 50% less payphone calls than we did ten years ago, and that in turn has led to 41% less revenue from BT payphones.
'We simply can't afford to maintain all the extra payphones which were brought in in the late 1980's, so we are trying to remove those that are providing least benefit to the surrounding community.'
The community does have a chance to respond to the proposals — BT sends drafts of its recommended closures to local authorities and parish councils with a 42-day response period.
Mr King said BT would not remove payphones which were of intrinsic value to a neighbourhood and stressed that boxes would only be scrapped if another was available within a reasonable distance.
He said: 'BT subsidises thousands of payphones across the country in order to provide a universal service and we certainly wouldn't scrap any kiosk that was vital to the community.'
Calstock Parish Council last week voted unanimously to oppose the scrapping of the King Street box.
Chairman Cllr Norma Greenslade said: 'We really feel there is still a need for the payphone service in that area.'
The council has written to British Telecom expressing its opposition to the scheme and hopes that the response will be favourable.
The King Street payphone was previously located at Dimson, but was so little used that British Telecom requested its removal.
Reluctant to lose the lifeline completely, Calstock Parish Council stepped in and requested its relocation to King Street, from where it would serve residents in nearby Woodland Way.
The phone box was duly moved and positioned on one of the few level areas in Gunnislake so that residents who had difficulty walking could reach it easily.