SPEAK UP FOR PHONEBOXES

10:29am Saturday 16th August 2008

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IT'S all over for 18 "lifeline" phone boxes across the county unless someone speaks up for them.

The 18 are the only kiosks that no-one seems to want to save in the BT box cull.

Seven of the seemingly doomed boxes are in or around Ross-on-Wye, two are near Leominster, one near Ledbury, and one in Westfaling Street, Hereford.

Others are dotted around the county.

Herefordshire Council is fighting BT over the future for 110 phone boxes here. BT wants to shut the boxes because they don't make money.

One box, at Monkland, near Leominster, has already gone.

So far, the council has secured support for 92 of the threatened boxes through parish councils.

The council's case is that such boxes are lifelines to rural communities where mobile phone coverage is limited.

Consultation over the future for the boxes ends on September 26.