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Duncan: Red phone box is part of our heritage and must be saved The Shadow Secretary for Business, Alan Duncan, has written to BT calling for local councils to be able to adopt any red phone boxes which have been earmarked for closure. BT announced it would be closing up to 9,000 of its 62,000 payphones, of which there are approximately 12, 747 of the iconic Gilbert Scott red phone boxes. Alan wrote to BT asking them to suspend the consultation process, or at the very least, allow councils to adopt the phone box if local people wanted to keep them. Thousands of condemned red phone boxes could be now saved after BT agreed to Alan’s request to review its plans and consider letting local people take responsibility for running them. BT has agreed to not close any red phone boxes until the situation has been reviewed. English Heritage is also supporting the idea. Commenting, Alan Duncan said: ‘We completely understand that in the age of the mobile, payphones are becoming less and less used.‘But the red phone box is part of our heritage and, like the Routemaster bus, it is an iconic symbol of British design around the world. This is not something that we should be just chucking away with a load of old telephones. ‘If people wish to keep them they should be allowed to. ‘With Labour’s cuts to the post offices, the closure of police stations, and the decline of small shops, people are genuinely concerned that their local communities are losing their identities. ‘So it’s crucial that, despite the welcome assurance I have received from BT, we must make doubly sure that any local communities – from the local parish councils to a resident’s association – are given the chance to adopt any red phone boxes that are under threat.’
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