BT bosses have been urged to rethink proposals to close remote rural phone boxes across the Ribble Valley because they provide a vital emergency service.

Campaigners hoping to retain some public phone boxes also want the phone giant to consider possible alternatives including installing motorway-style emergency phones in remote areas.

BT bosses plan to close 23 out of 77 phones across the borough, but Ribble Valley Council and the Lancashire Association of Parish and Town Council have objected. The closures are among more than 100 earmarked for removal across East Lancashire as part of a review announced in October last year. Under the plans 21 will be removed in Blackburn, 13 in Hyndburn, 13 in Burnley, 18 in Pendle and 14 in Rossendale. Council bosses claim Ribble Valley is a special case because of the remote nature of many of its phones in outlying rural areas such as Dunsop Bridge, Tosside and Bolton-by-Bowland.

Roger Hirst, secretary of the Ribble Valley branch of Lancashire Association of Parish and Town Councils, said: "I understand that some of these phones don't make a profit, but they provide a vital service for some of our remote rural areas.

"There's one phone, between Tosside and Slaidburn, which is miles from anywhere but is used to schoolchildren waiting for their bus or by people who have broken down or become stranded. Most of the Forest of Bowland has little or no signal for mobile phones so these public phones are vital.

"We also suggested replacing the phones with motorway emergency boxes or financing the existing phones by sponsorship." David Morris, chief executive of Ribble Valley Council, has written to BT expressing the authority's concerns. He wrote: "The proposals are yet another example of removing essential services from rural areas. They are the only emergency phones in deep rural areas. We strongly support alternatives suggested." Ribble Valley councillors discussed the closures at a meeting of its parish council's liaison committee last night.

A spokesman for BT said one of the phones, in Ribchester Road, Wilpshire, will definitely close, but the future of the remaining 22 will be open to negotiation with Ribble Valley Council.

He added: "The removal of these phones is on hold . We would consider the alternatives, such as sponsorship or roadside emergency boxes, when we have looked at the financial implications."