‘Trojan horse’ phone boxes used to carry adverts

TELEPHONE boxes are being used as Trojan horses to sell adverts, councils have complained as applications to install them have soared by 900 per cent.

Despite a rise in mobile phones meaning that street payphones are a “relic of a bygone era”, a planning loophole means hundreds could be put up around the country to provide lucrative advertising space, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.

The LGA, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, has called on the Government to scrap permitted development, which allows telecoms companies to install boxes without planning permission. A sample of 12 council areas found there were 89 applications to install phone boxes in 2015, compared with 914 last year. Martin Tett, the LGA’S planning spokesman, said: “Companies are exploiting a loophole in the law to allow what is tantamount to Trojan telephone boxes being used as advertising spaces, rather than the original purpose of providing a place for people to use a phone. Councils are powerless to act.”

Under the current law, companies only need a licence from Ofcom to install a telephone box.