'No call for phone boxes': Council hangs up on multiple bids to build third-party booths
An Ulster council has repeatedly hung up on attempts by a firm to build third-party phone boxes in Northern Ireland.
London-based New World Payphones Ltd wanted to build its first booths in the province in Ballymena, Larne and Carrickfergus. The same council planners oversee all three towns; they have repeatedly refused the firm permission to build, insisting it hasn’t proved there is any call for the boxes.
Third-party businesses have to demonstrate there’s a need for phone booths in each specific area it wants to build in order to win planning approval for them. At least eight New World attempts to get them on the line in the Mid and East Antrim area have been knocked back in recent weeks, with officials saying that hurdle hasn’t been crossed.
In half of those cases, three in Larne and one in Carrickfergus, the firm pointed to the pending demolition of nearby BT telephone kiosks as evidence that a gap in the local market was about to open up and they could fill it.
Planners dismissed the suggestion, countering that the BT demolitions amount to proof phone boxes aren’t required in those areas.
Documents submitted to Mid and East Antrim Council by New World state that it runs a network of around 1,500 telephone kiosks around the UK, but doesn’t yet have any in Northern Ireland and is looking to move into the province.
All eight failed planning applications have been appealed to a higher provincewide authority, New World clearly believing the council’s refusals amount to a wrong number.
The firm argues that despite the ubiquity of mobile phones causing a sharp drop in demand for public call boxes, there is still “an ongoing user need” for them on streets around the country.
New World states: “Kiosks are recognised to continue to deliver an important service particularly to those without access to mobile telephones, to vulnerable people whom the market might not otherwise serve, or where mobile coverage is incomplete.
“Notably, the ability to call crisis lines and helplines from a public telephone kiosk is recognised as particularly important given that a kiosk provides an untraceable option to people uncomfortable making such calls from a landline or mobile device.”
The firm’s phone boxes carry some design elements that are reminiscent of both the classic British red phone box and its 1990s replacements, though would be seen as having more in common with the latter than the former. They also carry large digital advert screens.
Its kiosks include defibrillators, which the firm suggested would be a benefit in medical emergencies; in submissions to the council New World also argued that mobile phone coverage in each area it was eyeing is “variable”, with multiple different providers operating, so its boxes would be in demand.
It went on to state that people in deprived areas can lack both decent internet services and a safe place to make calls in a crisis, proposing both issues could be served by its kiosks.
Planning officials weren’t convinced, however. They dismissed the claims about mobile phone coverage, stating that according to an Ofcom checker signals aren’t weak, and took issue with the digital ad screens which they felt would be “highly visible” and mean the booths could damage the character of a given area.