IT’S good to talk – and villagers in West Dorset have by voicing their objection to proposals by BT to scrap public phoneboxes.

West Dorset District Council has vowed to stand by parish councils after the vast majority pleaded for their phones to stay in place.

BT is planning to allow parishes to adopt their local phonebox for £1 but the telephone equipment would be removed.

After consultation with parish and town councils, only Minterne Magna and Cheselbourne had no objections to the BT proposals.

The district council – which first voiced its opposition last year – is now calling for the remaining 83 phoneboxes to remain with fully working equipment.

Charminster and Charlton Down Parish Council chairman Mark Simons said the phoneboxes in his parish were a valued community asset.

He said: “Even though there was evidence of low usage the feeling was there are quite a lot of older people who live in the area and may not have access to a mobile phone or a landline so there is some value in retaining the traditional phoneboxes.

“One has to accept the calls are never going to pay for the maintenance but as a public service we feel there is good reason why they should continue. In some of the more rural areas you also don’t get much signal at all and you can see other villages wanting to maintain them for their visual amenity.”

Kingston Russell and Long Bredy Parish Council clerk Gwen Kinghorn said: “We do need our phonebox because we don’t have any mobile coverage and we get a lot of delivery drivers that tend to get lost and we get a lot of tourists around here.

“It’s nice that the district council has listened to us all.”

Stinsford Parish Council chairman Hugh Grenville-Jones said his council had just passed a resolution in support of the district council’s decision, calling for the retention of their phonebox in Lower Bockhampton.

West Dorset District Council leader Robert Gould said: “Rural facilities need to be protected, so I am pleased with the decision to continue to oppose BT’s proposals to remove phoneboxes from the district.”

The decision by the council’s executive committee has been sent to BT and the Govern-ment’s Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

For a list of phone boxes affected, visit dorsetfor you.com/phoneboxes/west.