Stay of execution for most of East Lothian's pay phones

BT announced plans last September to disconnect 36 public pay phones across the county, after figures showed a steep decline in their use.

However, members of the public objected to the move, with just two phones now to be disconnected and the phone boxes removed.

That will see phone boxes in Morham and on Gifford’s Walden Terrace removed, with work across the country expected to start in the next few months. Neither phone was used in the 12 months between September 2015 and September last year.

Currently, East Lothian has 69 pay phones spread across the county, from the six major towns to more rural locations, such as Oldhamstocks, Innerwick, Whitekirk, Morham and Kingston.

Interest has also been expressed in the public adopting the phone box at Oldhamstocks and West Saltoun – which would see the phone itself removed but the phone box retained. Elsewhere, phone boxes have been transformed into miniature art galleries, libraries and even housing potentially life-saving defibrillators under the adoption scheme.

A spokeswoman for BT said: “We initially proposed to remove in the region of 1,500 payphones (30 per cent of the current estate) in Scotland over the next three years.

“All of these followed Ofcom’s consultation process for payphone removal, unless there was another payphone within 400 metres, when the process was not required.

“Where we receive objections from the local authority, we won’t remove the payphone.

“We’re committed to providing a public payphone service but demand just isn’t there anymore.

“With usage declining by more than 90 per cent in the last decade, we’ve continued to review and, where necessary, rationalise our payphone estate to continue to meet remaining customer demand and manage our costs.

“As an alternative to removal, we continue to actively promote the Adopt a Kiosk scheme to all councils whilst being committed to maintaining the phones that remain.”