PARISH councillors and residents in Whitby's rural area are continuing a fight to save public payphones British Telecom is proposing to remove, claiming they can save lives in emergencies.
In April, BT told the North York Moors National Park Authority it intended removing 28 public phones from throughout the park, 13 of them in the Whitby area.
It claimed the number of calls made from the phones has halved in the past three years an
d 60% of them no longer cover their costs.
There is no duty for BT to consult the public or local authorities about removing a payphone where there is another within 400 metres but where that is not the case it must consult the planning authority.
Objectors have until 25 July when the consultation period ends to register their views.
Residents in Fylingdales as well as parish councillors have raised strong objections to the removal of the payphone in Raw.
They claimed residents use it regularly as it’s some distance from the nearby villages of Fylingthorpe and Robin Hood’s Bay.
They also pointed out that public transport is extremely difficult, especially in winter.
Councillors are concerned that, as in many similar areas, mobile phone coverage is poor and the payphone is therefore vital for contacting emergency services.
Similar objections were made by residents and parish councillors in Danby and Fryup where, again, mobile phone signals are poor and tourists and older people in the villages don’t always have mobile phones.
They also wanted payphones to be coin operated and not converted to cards.
But in Glaisdale, parish councillors raised no objections on the grounds that following their experience over previous removal of payphones by BT they believed the consultation exercise to be pointless and would go ahead regardless of their views.
They considered the phones to be valuable but accepted that they were not commercially viable unless they were subsidised.
The national park authority will continue to accept residents’ and councillors’ views on the issue for inclusion in its report to BT until Monday.
The payphones BT proposes to remove are in Danby, Houlsyke, Commondale, Botton, Fylingdales, Aislably, Littlebeck, Raw, East Barnby, West Barnby, Grosmont, Fryup and Lealholm.
The full article contains 373 words and appears in Whitby Gazette Tuesday newspaper.
