BOX CLEVER

NEW BLACK PHONE BOOTHS POP UP ACROSS CITY

BLACK phone boxes based on the iconic red design of the 20th century are springing up across Coventry. The booths – which have a payphone, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen featuring journey planners, maps and local points of interest - are a private project by New World Payphones and are separate to BT’s red phone boxes. The boxes also feature huge digital advertising screens down one side. Revenue generated from the adverts will go towards weekly maintenance and upkeep of the boxes. And the company says for every new phone box it installs, it will plant a new tree. The first black box has been installed on the corner of Trinity Street and Ironmonger Row. Justin Cochrane, CEO of Clear Channel UK, the owner of New World Payphones, said: “These new phone boxes provide a host of benefits to the public including telephone, and local area information. his launch will also see us declutter high streets and plant hundreds of trees in urban areas while providing a timely boost for British manufacturing.

Apprentice presenter Lord Sugar is also on board with the new look for London.

“Along with the likes of red buses, Piccadilly Circus and Big Ben, the inner-city phone box has been synonymous with Britain’s cultural heritage since their introduction nearly one hundred years ago,” said Lord Sugar. It is therefore fitting that Amscreen – a British company – have been charged with manufacturing the remodelling of this classic design icon.”

Last November we reported how three of Coventry’s last eight red phone boxes could disappear if the local community don’t rally round to save them.

BT set up public consultations on whether the iconic booths should remain in Barnfield Avenue, Allesley; Dawlish Drive, Styvechale; and Clifford Bridge Road, Walsgrave.

The telecoms giant explained that the increased use of mobile phones meant that payphones were needed less and less, especially in emergency situations.

A spokesman said at the time: “Overall use of payphones has declined by over 90 per cent in the last decade and the need to provide payphones for use in emergency situations is diminishing all the time, with at least 98 per cent of the UK having either 3G or 4G coverage. This is important because as long as there is network coverage, it’s now possible to call the emergency services, even when there is no credit or no coverage from your own mobile provider.”