Phone boxes could be turned into lifesavers

CHARLOTTE GREEN

ELEVEN phone boxes across the Valley are set to be removed or re-purposed to house defibrillators.

British Telecom (BT) applied to Rossendale council for permission to remove 12 of its phone booths across Rossendale.

The council has blocked the removal of one, in Water, but raised no objection to the others. But proposals have been put forward to install defibrillators in some of the decommissioned phone boxes.

This would see the phone line disconnected but the box remaining and power supply being continued by BT.

The telecoms giant highlighted more than a third of all public phone boxes across the Valley as being redundant - many of them having not been used to make a single phone call in the past 12 months.

Rossendale’s planning committee voted to object to the removal of a phone booth at the junction of Dean Lane and Burnley Road East in Water, but did not object to the removal of the remaining boxes - which could now disappear early in the new year. Three of these boxes are in Bacup, two in Waterfoot, two in Whitworth, two in Edenfield, one in Rawtenstall and one in Ramsbottom.

However, the committee agreed they would support, in principle, the proposal for some of the booths to be used to house defibrillators, if practical.

Speaking at the meeting, Coun Jimmy Eaton said the plans were positive but he had concerns about vandalism.

He said: “You’re talking about putting defibrillators, which I would like to see on every street corner, in a lot of these boxes to get vandalised.”

Planning bosses accepted they could be targeted by vandals but said it would be the community who would be responsible for maintenance of the equipment.

Planning manager Nicola Hopkins said: “We object to the removal of the phone box in Water as the community want it to be retained as a working phone box.

“Community Defibrilla- tors for Rossendale would like to explore the possibility of using five of the boxes for community use.”

Dawn Taylor, co-ordinator of the Community Defibrillators for Rossendale committee, said: “At the minute it’s just an expression of interest, there are a lot of things to look into, but there are a number of phone boxes that we might be interested in.”

What do you think? Send us a letter.