Residents' fight to save Cwmbran red phonebox

10:40am Monday 5th January 2009

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A GROUP of residents in Cwmbran are fighting to save two local iconic red telephone boxes as “street art”.

The campaign, led by Llanyrafon South councillor, Margaret Pead wants Torfaen council to adopt the 50-year-old telephone boxes from BT.

The telephone company plans to remove the two K6 design red boxes in Tram Lane, Llanfrechfa, and Ludlow Close in Llanyrafon, unless council chiefs agree to adopt them for a fee of £1 each.

A petition signed by 28 nearby residents has been handed over to Torfaen council to keep the boxes, who would be responsible for their upkeep.

Mrs Pead said: “In my opinion these telephone boxes should be kept in our community as they are unique to this land.

“I understand that these are difficult times economically but we should still treasure our heritage.

“Hopefully the council will agree to the adoption scheme so many more generations will be able to enjoy these wonderfully designed pieces of street furniture.”

The famous Gilbert Scott designed K6 or Jubilee kiosk was launched in 1936 to celebrate King George V’s silver jubilee.

By the 1960s almost 70,000 kiosks could be found across the countryside.

A spokeswoman for BT confirmed the company was planning to remove the K6 red kiosk in Ludlow Close and had started the consultation process on removing the Llanfrechfa box.

She said: “The council has not objected to our proposal to remove it, so it is likely to be removed unless they submit a request to 'adopt' it.”

Torfaen council’s cabinet member for regeneration, Richard Clark, said: “We value the merits of keeping the phone boxes as a piece of our heritage and are still considering whether to adopt the kiosks.

“We would be minded however, that there are other such telephone boxes in the borough and we would need to look at them all.

“We have not ruled it out, however during this time of economic uncertainty we need to be careful which costs we take on board.”