End of the line for 53 kiosks (From Western Telegraph)

End of the line for 53 kiosks

OVER 50 public phone boxes in Pembrokeshire are being axed by BT to curb a fall in the companys profits.

The mobile phone boom has led to BT payphone revenue dropping by over a third in the last two years.

The company is not allowed to subsidise its payphone service from its other business and so has decided to decommission 12,000 of its 141,000 kiosks in the UK.

Work has already started on taking away many of the 53 kiosks in Pembrokeshire which are earmarked for removal. A total of 310 will remain.

The majority of them are a reduction in clusters of telephone boxes and BT says it will not remove a kiosk site unless there is an alternative up to around 200 metres away.

All Pembrokeshire County Council members have been asked by transportation and environment director Huw Roberts to identify kiosks they feel should be retained, but no representations had been received, a county council spokesman said this week.

The full list of kiosks to be removed is: Newport (car park, Long Street). Fishguard (West Street). St Davids (outside The Pebbles). Newgale (Beach). Haverfordwest (Quay Street; junction Dew Street/Shipmans Lane; Castle Square, two; Trafalgar Road); Little Haven (Grove Place). Neyland (junction High Street/Windsor Gardens; Brunel Quay). Pembroke Dock (outside Pater Hall, two; junction Albion Square/Charlton Place; Meyrick Street; Hawkstone Road; junction Bush Street/Munro Court; Commercial Row, two; opposite Police Station, Water Street, two). Marloes (Post Office). Freshwater East (Trewent side and car park). Pembroke (East End Square). Milford Haven (Gelliswick Road, Hakin; Hamilton Terrace. two; junction Great North Road/Charles Street; Elm Lane). Kilgetty (outside Co-op, two). Saundersfoot (junction Milford Street/Milford Terrace; junction Rushy Lake/Stammers Lane). Pentlepoir (outside Post Office). New Hedges, three). Tenby (outside Post Office, six; Tudor Square; outside Tourist Information Centre, The Croft, two; The Green, St Julian Street). Penally (outside Penally Camp, two).