EDEN’S Executive have rubberstamped a decision to save over half of the British Telecom (BT) public telephone boxes in the District that have been earmarked for closure by the telecommunications company.

BT had proposed 44 telephone boxes for closure in the District and following a public consultation by the Council in June on the telephone operators closure plans, Eden's Community Services Portfolio Holder, Councillor Mary Robinson made a draft decision to object to half the closures by taking into account regulatory factors and by developing a local criteria to help reach a decision.

This procedure required a second round of public consultation (which closed on 26 August). This gave details of the ‘Council’s draft decision’ with a request for new information which the Executive could taken into account before making a final decision at its meeting on 2 September 2008.

No new information came to light during the second public consultation which was of sufficient weight to change the draft decision made by the Council in July 2008. Therefore, the Executive rubberstamped their earlier decision’ making it Eden’s official response to BT’s Telephone Box Closure Plans.

In publishing the decision Eden’s Community Services Portfolio Holder, Mary Robinson said: “We are a sparsely populated rural area and our local economy is dependent on tourism and we have taken these factors into account when accessing services. We recognise BT’s needs to make efficiency savings and the impact of mobile phones on public telephone box usage figures, but we have reached our judgement in a comprehensive, fair and balanced way.

“The future delivery of rural services is something that Eden is keen to champion, so the Council has requested continuing dialogue with BT to ensure public access to essential telephone services in the District is protected.”