The Village Trust is asking you to vote on whether we should take over looking after the Phone Box in the centre of the village.
BT have a scheme whereby we adopt the box, and they disconnect the phone system.
Under Ofcom’s criteria, phone boxes are protected where:-
they are in a place without coverage from all four mobile network providers
or they are located in an area with a high frequency of accidents or suicides
or 52 or more calls have been made from them over the past 12 months
or there is other evidence that a phone box is reasonably needed at a site – for example, where it is being used to make calls to helplines such as Childline.
None of these ‘rules’ fit the Titchfield Box, in fact over the last 12 months it has only been used 4 times.
If you vote yes to the proposal, they will refurbish the box and turn it back into the very successful book exchange it became during the pandemic.