AN outraged Okehampton resident is calling for the removal of an out of town phone box, following persistent attacks by vandals.

Raymond Harper, who lives in Baldwin Drive, says the phone box at the entrance to Giblands estate has been targeted by vandals seven times in just 18 months.

Mr Harper said: ?I get sick and tired of seeing this wanton vandalism. The phone box has thick plate glass, it must cost a bomb to replace and it?s now completely wrecked again.?

Mr Harper said the attacks on the phone box usually happen on a Friday or Saturday night ? he felt drunken youths were the culprits.

?I see the damage the morning after it?s happened, when I take the dog to Simmons Park. I report it to the police but nothing gets done. If they can?t control this vandalism then they ought to take the kiosk away,? said Mr Harper, who said the glass phone box was hit with a large stone in the latest attack.

PC Angie Frost of Okehampton Police said said the phone box was attacked on Friday and Saturday night, January 24 and 25.

PC Frost said blood was left at the scene after the first attack, samples of which have been sent away for DNA testing.

PC Frost asked anyone who saw the phone box being vandalised on either of the two nights to contact the police on 08705 777444, quoting logs JO/03/69 for the Friday incident or JO/03.76 for the Saturday incident.

She said BT had been informed of the damage to the phone box.

Lesley King, press spokesman for BT Payphones, said vandalism costs BT more than £4 million a year nationally.

Mr King said: ?Normally we don?t remove kiosks because of vandalism. Most suffer vandalism from time to time ? we use toughened glass in kiosks so it?s fairly resistant but obviously it?s not unbreakable.

?In cases where the phone box is broken constantly we would replace the glass with polycarbonate, but when that?s scratched it becomes opaque, so we prefer to use glass where we can for security purposes.?

He said even if there was a payphone nearby the Giblands kiosk, if it was within a shop it would not be available 24 hours a day and BT would be reluctant to remove what could be an emergency facility.

Mr King appealed to members of the public who witnesses vandalism in phone boxes to contact the police and report the incident to BT by phoning the freephone 151 number.

He said to approach vandalism in a pro-active manner, BT has just launched a national competition called Kicking Vandalism Out. School students are being encouraged to design an anti-vandalism poster, with the winners netting £2,500 worth of computer equipment for their schools.

To find out more about the competition, go to: