Eden residents are being urged to Have Their Say in response to British Telecom's (BT) proposal to close 44 public phone boxes in the the District.
Eden District Council is co-ordinating the public consultation on the proposals and will forward the District's representations to BT. Residents and interested parties are invited to comment before Friday 18July 2008 on the proposed closures. These responses will be considered by the Council's Portfolio Holder for Community Services, Councillor Mary Robinson.
The Portfolio Holder will then make a preliminary decision based on the evidence received which will be publicised for a further month allowing those who are interested to make further comments where appropriate.
The Council's newly formed Cabinet will then be expected to make the final decision on the response to the closures on Tuesday 2 September 2008.
The Council's Portfolio Holder for Community Services, Councillor Mary Robinson said: "We appreciate that high mobile phone ownership has diminished use of phone boxes over recent years. However there are people who may be vulnerable in Eden's rural areas who in certain circumstances will regard a telephone box as a critical service at a vital time. We will be examining each telephone box against criteria recommended by the Office of Communications (Ofcom). The District Council will be looking to keep the telephone boxes where a strong case for retention can be made."
Responses to the consultation should focus on the following Ofcom criteria when responding.
The housing type in the area: Areas of lower income housing, predominantly rented and Local Authority Housing, are less likely to have access to a landline phone or mobile phones.
The number of households in the area: The catchment area for a phone box can be considered as the households within 400 metres. This, however, will not take into account passing traffic such as those on a busy road and therefore each payphone should be assessed on a site by site basis.
Emergency use: Data is not available for emergency calls but in our consideration of this form of use we must also consider the available alternatives for making emergency calls in the area, e.g. adjacent dwellings, public services and mobile phone coverage. Payphones in locations that have potential to be close to accidents, such as at busy road junctions, may warrant retention on this basis.
Mobile phone coverage: Poor or sporadic mobile network coverage can be an important factor in our consideration. The network coverage of four main network operators, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, are being examined.
How to Respond to the Consultation:
Download the attached form, fill it in and send by email or post to:
Alan Houghton,
Economic Regeneration Officer,
Eden District Council,
Town Hall,
Penrith,
Cumbria CA11 7QF
Tel: (01768) 212169
Email: econ.dev@eden.gov.uk
