Iconic red boxes’ new lease of life

phone boxes when they turned theirs into a mini library in 2012.

It was saved after being among 400 culled by BT in 2008.

Residents quickly embraced the idea and handed over books and magazines they no longer had a use for, while others sold plants and jars of green tomato and apple chutney.

Nutty Thrupp used the proceeds to raise money for the Vanessa Grant Trust, which helps support handicapped children in Kenya.

Plans are currently under way to save a red telephone box in Deal at risk of being decommissioned by British Telecom.

Beverley-Jayne Last, Kerry Banks, and Chrissi Dunn, were inspired to set up a fundraising campaign after around 400 residents suggested it be turned into a combined Public Access Defibrillator site (PAD) and community library.

They have written to Deal Town Council asking them to consider being the official ‘adoptees’ of the box, in Alfred Square, at a cost of £1.

MP Charlie Elphicke pledged to help with the negotiations with BT and £150 has already been raised.

Book lover Abegael Tomlin has been working with Chartham Parish Council to turn the village green’s run-down phone box into a miniature library.

The 22-year-old, who works as a veterinary assistant, was searching for a spot to set up a community book swap after spotting one in Chestfield.

She previously told the KM: “I knew we had a phone box on the green that doesn’t get used very much, and I thought that’s a nice place for it.”

The parish council needs permission from BT to adopt the booth, and the plan is to fill it with books the community can then borrow.

Resident Sally Devere raised £1,750 to set up a life-saving defibrillator in a converted red phone box in Herne Bay High Street.

It is still going strong despite being vandalised twice in the space of three months.

A vandal urinated inside the phone box - more recently, it seemed, their primary function - and ripped its hi-vis jacket to shreds in February before thieves attempted to steal the lifesaving equipment in May.

Ms Devere has been lobbying the council to install a CCTV

camera close to the converted phone box to try and prevent future attacks.

Life-saving devices have also been set up in converted red phone boxes in West Malling, Aylesford, Broadstairs, Lydd and New Romney - although the latter were also targeted by thieves.

It is thought only 25 red phone boxes are still in use in Kent - but they are increasingly taking on a new role in our towns and villages