Retro phone box call to help town revamp

7:48pm Friday 7th December 2007

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A CALL has been made for traditional red phone boxes to be returned to Darwen as part of the town's regeneration.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has agreed for BT to erect two new phoneboxes to replace those removed because of building work.

The new phoneboxes will be the KX Plus variety which feature red domed roofs, two 'Coin and Card' kiosks, one 'email, text and phone' kiosk and one ATM kiosk.

One will be sited from the previous site in the market square to another outside the old bank in Croft Street.

But Coun Simon Huggill wants the iconic K6 kiosks, which were designed by Gilbert Giles Scott in 1935.

He said: "Darwen is a historic market town so wouldn't it be nice to have the traditional K6 phone boxes?

"It would cost an extra £3,000 to £4,000 for them, but with all these millions being spent on Darwen, that is not a lot.

"Where is the colour in the town centre? There is grey everywhere.

"We need the red phoneboxes to give a splash of colour and fit in with the heritage of the town.

"If we don't carve out an identity such as being a historic market town, and regenerate like Ramsbottom have done, then we will just be south Blackburn when Blackburn is made a city."

Improving the look of the town centre is one of the aims of the Lancashire Telegraph's We're Backing Darwen campaign.

And Coun Dave Hollings agreed that the red phoneboxes would help make Darwen town centre look nicer.

He said: "If it were possible to have the old fashioned boxes I would back it because they would look nicer.

"Phoneboxes would be one of the little things that help Darwen maintain its character.

"We need to keep on investing in making Darwen look nice."

The two phoneboxes that were removed from the market square were the KX100 variety - introduced in 1985 and made of stainless steel and anodised aluminium.

The only red K6 phonebox left in Darwen is situated in Tockholes.

And a spokesperson for BT said: "There isn't a date given for the work to start, but it is expected the phoneboxes will be in place in the next two to three months.

"We don't carry stock of the old fashioned ones and they have inherent problems.

"They are very difficult to clean, they are not user-friendly for disabled access and because they are made from cast iron, the doors are very heavy."

Coun Alan Cottam, executive member for regeneration said: "With the high usage of mobile phones, the call for telephone boxes has been dramatically reduced.

"In view of this, only one phone box is needed at this site to replace the two that were removed during the regeneration work earlier this year.

"A box in keeping with a conservation area will be installed at the agreed site on Market Street in spring next year."