What to do with two eyesore telephone boxes in Main Street will exercise the minds of Keswick town councillors at their next meeting.
The issue was raised by Cumberland Council member Cllr Sally Lansbury, who represents Keswick, at the January meeting of the town council following some correspondence she received from local resident Philip Graham.
He said that for a long time both boxes — one of which contains a heart defibrillator — had been neglected and in informal conversations he had had with many people he said that all were in agreement in asking: “Does the town really need them? Can they be replaced? Do British Telecom have a duty
to uphold their appearance?”
He said that ideally he would like to see them replaced by an old traditional red one if possible but was uncertain about how to make this happen. He asked whether a petition would help or would fundraising be required.
“This would bring a bit of colour and tradition back to the town centre,” he said. “A weekend’s car park takings could probably fund it.”
The issue was briefly discussed by town councillors who heard that it was possible to buy a refurbished red telephone box at a cost of £4,000.
Council clerk Vivien Little said that sum was quite a chunk of finance for the town council to pay out and it would also have to apply to the Lake District National Park Authority for planning permission.
The meeting was also told that an organisation could apply for funding from Cumberland Council’s Lakes to Sea community panel and this approach would be supported by the town council.
Another suggestion was that somebody could be employed to paint them artistically.
All councillors agreed that they were an eyesore with finance officer Catherine Parker saying: “You walk past them and don’t notice them but other people walk past and they are awful.”
In her response to Mr Graham, Cllr Lansbury said the phone boxes were the property of BT and the key would be finding out who to contact.
She said: “Feel free to make some enquiries and I will do the same and we can come up with a proposal for council in the new year.
“They can only support in principle as it will be down to BT, but we can find a way to make a grant application somewhere if there is a cost to the work.”
