PLANS to remove nearly two dozen phone boxes from West Somerset and Exmoor areas poorly served by mobile phones could put lives at risk, local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger warned this week.

As reported in last week’s Free Press, BT has announced plans to remove boxes from locations where they are being used as little as once a month.

“The reason those phone boxes are required is not because they look picturesque, not that they are iconically significant – it’s because they could literally be life-savers,” Mr Liddell-Grainger said.

“The telecoms sector has been incredibly laggardly in delivering mobile phone coverage to Exmoor despite the massive amount of government investment that has been made available.

“We all know the reason why – the special circumstances that pertain in rural areas where the cost of installation and maintenance of the network is hardly likely to be covered by the returns.

“But the counter to that is that if the new technology cannot be made available then the old technology cannot simply be ripped out and it would be folly – and dangerous folly – to do so.

“And when one learns that the National Park authority still hasn’t got round to approving all the work necessary for the new emergency services communications network across the moor, Exmoor suddenly starts to look like a very dangerous place to go adventuring.”