Leicestershire Parish Councils

Correspondence has been received some time ago from British Telecom concerning the Telephone Kiosk in East Norton.

The main points of the letter were as follows:

Kiosks are not as profitable as they once were due to the fact that 99% of British homes have a telephone and 85% have a mobile phone. There are 66,000 public payphones in Great Britain and two thirds of these do not cover their costs.

The payphone in East Norton has been identified as one which is not economic.

BT is currently obliged to provide a public payphone with cash payment facility, but this obligation is under review by Offcom. It is expected that the obligation will be removed in the light of the above statistics.

The removal of the obligation to provide the cash facility will enable BT to convert the East Norton payphone to a cashless payphone, that is, one which payment is made using charge cards and credit cards. Emergency, operator controlled and reverse charge calls would still be available.

Cashless pay phones are far more economical to operate and less attractive to vandals.

The change will only come about if Offcom remove the obligation to provide cash payment facility payphones.

Note published 21/9/07
The East Norton telephone box has now been converted to not accept cash.