Powys County Council has been notified by BT Payphones of their intention to remove some payphones within the County. To ensure that the local community are fully informed BT has placed consultation notices on all the relevant payphones. The affected pay phones are shown below.

The removal process is regulated by Ofcom and Powys County Council is the nominated Local Public Organisation that will
receive responses from local communities for the consultation exercise. Following the consultation the Council will forward
recommendations to BT and the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport.

BT advise that overall use of payphones has declined by over 90 per cent in the last decade and the need to provide
payphones for use in emergency situations is diminishing all the time, with at least 98 per cent of the UK having either 3G or
4G coverage. This is important because as long as there is network coverage, it’s now possible to call the emergency
services, even when there is no credit or no coverage from your own mobile provider.

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You may also want to consider the recent Ofcom affordability report which found that most people do not
view payphones as essential for most consumers in most circumstances -
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/affordability/affordability_report.pdf

 

On the 14th March 2006 the Office of Communications (Ofcom) published a statement following their 2005 review of universal service in the Telecommunications market, which includes a requirement for payphone provision to meet reasonable needs. Part of that statement amended our obligations with regard to the removal of payphone service: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/34266/statement.pdf

This consultation process also gives local communities the opportunity to adopt a traditional red ‘heritage’ phone box and
make them an asset that local people can enjoy. It’s really simple to do and it costs just £1 (click on the button link above).
The Council invites your views for consideration as part of this process.

 

The Council invites your views for consideration as part of this process. If you wish to submit a response for consideration
please reference the relevant payphone number and location from the list below. Responses may agree the removal, object
giving reasons, or indicate that the community wishes to adopt a kiosk for an alternative use.

Following an initial consultation period which will end on 30/09/20 responses will be considered and a draft notice perpared.  For the next stage of the consultation, further views will be sought on the draft decision which will be posted below 

 

The final deadline to receive views is Midnight on Friday 08/10/2020.

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