Williams vows to resist call box cull

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Jun 2008

Brecon & Radnorshire's Liberal Democrat MP, Roger Williams, has said that he will continue to strongly resist any attempt by BT to close down more telephone boxes in his vast, rural constituency after BT revealed plans to shut 94 public call boxes in Brecon & Radnorshire. His commitment comes just four years after he led a successful campaign against a similar BT cull, which saved scores of call boxes threatened with closure.

Commenting on the latest proposals from BT, Mr. Williams said:

"This is absolutely disastrous. BT says that the widespread use of mobile phones has meant that the need for call boxes has greatly reduced. Well, that's all well and good in an area where one can get a reliable mobile phone signal. But in Brecon & Radnorshire there are still vast areas with no mobile phone signal at all or very weak coverage and, guess what, it is mainly in these areas that BT is proposing to remove the public call boxes!"

"BT is justifying its proposals on the grounds that very few calls are made from many of these call boxes. But the calls that are made may well be urgent or emergency ones. That one call per week could be to call an ambulance, the fire service or the Police. Some of the boxes identified for closure are situated on trunk roads with high traffic volumes, such as the one in Erwood on the A470, where there is only a poor mobile phone signal. We know also that call boxes are frequently used as a means by which children at risk contact Childline or the Police."

"Ofcom, the communications industry regulator, laid down minimum public call box coverage criteria during the last round of closure proposals. I cannot see how these current proposals can meet those standards and I will be lobbying Ofcom hard to see that it enforces the Universal Service Obligation to ensure that, especially where mobile phone signals are weak, BT continues to maintain a network of public call boxes on the grounds of public safety and social inclusion."