Last year when British Telecom announced they were going to remove Luccombe’s iconic red phone box the villagers of Luccombe put up a fight. The village demonstrated that there is no mobile phone signal in the village and that in the event of emergencies that included an electricity power cut, the village would have no link to the outside world.
The strength of feeling forced BT had to back off. The phone box was saved.
But within a year they were back bleating that because the telephone box didn’t make any money, they were going to remove it. Luccombe again rose to arms against this devious foe.
BT used every trick to claim that Luccombe didn’t need a phone box. Besides saying we didn’t need it because no one had used in in the past year, they claimed that there is a mobile phone signal in the village. Anyone who lives in Luccombe knows that is a fantasy. Yet BT sent an engineer to the village and by some means or other picked up a mobile signal on the Three network.
Three is the mobile phone network that no one knows because their coverage is so bad no one uses it – a quick check of their coverage website shows they don’t even claim to offer a signal in Luccombe. Yet that was BT’s excuse to remove our telephone box.
BT also claimed the “public phone box” was not a “public phone box.” And on that basis that they did not have to engage in a public consultation about its removal. They maintained that because they had been given permission to put the box on National Trust land (a patch the size of the base of a telephone box in the village centre), that it was “private land” and therefore not a “public phone box.”
Luccombe says it needs its phone box for emergencies and a few months ago an emergency occurred that proved the point. When a baler caught fire in the field behind Stoney Street the injured driver had to call the emergency services. His mobile would not work, and his next option was Luccombe’s call box. As it was a villager saw the blaze and a call from a private telephone was made. But had that fortuitous intervention of a villager not occurred the public phone box would have been a lifeline.
South West and Taunton Council who, under rules set by the Office of Telecommunications (Ofcom) the power to decide when BT seeks to remove call boxes, has ruled Luccombe’s telephone box must stay.
The Exmoor National Park has also intervened in support of the box because of its heritage as a K6, Sir Gilbert Scott Jubilee call box that is a feature of the village, its conservation area and the National Park.
The box is safe until someone at BT is reminded that by whinging that no one uses it they can apply for its removal again. People in Luccombe are urged to remain vigilant is they see yet another notice threatening removal being posted in the box. Villagers could also try and make the occasional call from the box to ensure that BT doesn’t have a financial excuse for its removal.
The details of the decision can been seen at:
https://democracy.somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?Id=247
Read more about the history of our iconic phone box and previous attempts to save it.
Well done Henry. I will make the occasional call (now that it is working!) so that BT cannot claim it is not used.