POLICE are calling for a Blackburn phone box to be relocated after residents claimed it had become a drug-dealers' hangout.

They have backed a campaign for the BT box, on a path off Roebuck Close on Blackburn's Galligreaves estate, to be moved on to a nearby main road.

Residents are said to be too scared to use the phone box, which has been vandalised several times.

Mill Hill councillor Robin Evans has led the campaign, and has contacted BT and the police for action.

He said: "People tell me they didn't want the phone box there in the first place. We are not saying we want rid of it altogether, it just needs to be moved.

"It is in an isolated location, it is off the road and it has become a magnet for all sorts of trouble.

"People use it to go and ring their drug dealers to come and drop off drugs with them there.

"It is near a playground and to me and the people in the community, that is not on.

"People have been forced out of the phonebox just so junkies can ring their dealers. Phone boxes are supposed to be community facilities."

PC Vicky Warrington, the community beat manager for the area, said: "We are aware of the problems regarding this phonebox and in the area.

"We are talking with the councillors in the area and would the like the phone box to be moved to a more suitable location, preferably on a main road, where we can keep an eye on it."

Nobody was available to comment from BT. It is not the only phonebox in the area to cause concern. In 2001, councillors asked for BT to reckon the location of a kiosk in Bank Top because it had been vandalised six times in two months.

BT responded by saying that it was still well used by the community and would be subject to CCTV surveillance.