ALMOST 50 public pay phones in West Devon could soon be axed by communications giant BT, which claims they are not worth the cost of keeping them operational. The list of call boxes earmarked for closure covers the whole of the West Devon area, from Bere Ferrers to Beaworthy and from Milton Combe to Meeth. If the plans go ahead, many villages in the borough would be affected. Adam Symons, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for West Devon, said he was not happy at the news. Mr Symons said: 'Rural communities continue to be hit by closures of their shops, post offices, and now phone boxes. 'Enough is enough! You cannot have a sustainable community if you lose all the facilities from a village or town. It just does not make sense. 'We are meant to be encouraging local people to stay in their communities and be part of them. If we keep taking facilities away, there is going to be nothing left.' BT is asking residents in communities where the callboxes under threat are situated to contact it with their views on the closures. BT spokesman Jason Mann said: 'We are committed to meeting our obligations to provide a public payphone service, but the demand there once was just isn't there any more. Useage has halved in the last two years. 'Where we no longer believe a kiosk is needed we seek to remove it and there's nothing new in that, it's been the case for a number of years because of the continued decline in pay phone useage — that's primarily due to the increasing use of mobiles.' Mr Mann said there were 47 kiosks in West Devon which were currently being considered for removal by BT. 'We write to the local authority to obtain consent to remove any kiosk that doesn't have an alternative pay phone within 400 metres and this applies to 41 of these 47 kiosks. 'If there is a clear need for any of these pay phones, then we won't remove them.' The consultation period regarding the removal of pay phones in West Devon expires on July 7.