BT phone boxes

If you’ve passed through Bilbrook in the last few days, you might have noticed something was missing.

Well, two things … British Telecom has removed the two remaining public phone boxes in Bilbrook. One was located on Pendeford Mill Lane, and the other near Bilbrook Train Station.

This action followed a consultation process where objections to removal could only be sustained on the following grounds:

* The area lacks coverage from all four major mobile network providers.

* The kiosk is situated in an area with a high frequency of accidents or suicides.

* The kiosk has made 52 or more calls over the past 12 months (the equivalent of one call per week).

* There is other evidence of a reasonable need for the phone box.

None of these criteria applied to the Bilbrook phone boxes, leading to their removal. This decision reflects the evolving ways we communicate; as mobile phone usage has become the norm and coverage has significantly improved across the UK, public payphone usage has seen a dramatic decline.