More than 50 public telephone boxes in Norfolk look set to disappear - unless communities come forward to 'adopt them'.

The rise of the mobile phone means the traditional payphone has been vanishing from streets up and down the country. And BT has just identified 56 public payphones in villages and parishes across the Broadland district which it wants to remove.

BT has placed consultation notices on the relevant kiosks and has sent written notification to Broadland District Council. Officers from the council are alerting parishes about the potential removal. Parish now have a matter of weeks to make the case for the boxes to remain as functioning phones or to rally together to adopt one of the red 'heritage' kiosks for £1 to turn them into a local asset.

BT says overall use of payphones has declined by more than 90pc in the last decade, with at least 98pc of the UK having either 3G or 4G coverage.

They say phone boxes are not being removed where there is no network coverage, in accident blackspots, and a number of other locations which meet certain criteria.

People who want to object to the removal of a phone box should notify Broadland District Council of their reasons as soon as possible, but no later than November 30. Objections should be emailed to nigel.harris@broadland.gov.uk

Anyone who wants to adopt a phone box should visit https://business.bt.com/solutions/small-business/communities/adopt-a-kiosk/

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