Plans by BT to remove seven public payphones in the Tenby area have set alarm bells ringing amongst town councillors.
At Tuesday night's meeting of the town council, correspondence was received from Pembrokeshire County Council's director of development, Dr. Steven Jones, who had forwarded a list of affected payphones in the area that were part of BT's realignment programme.
The letter explained that Ofcom's 2005 review of universal service in the telecommunications market had amended BT's obligations with regard to the removal of payphone services.
The kiosks listed as non-viable payphones to be removed in the Tenby area were located at - Upper Park Road; St. Johns Church in South Parade; The Green; High Street; two in St. Julian Street; and one nearby in New Hedges.
"Not everyone uses a mobile phone, so I think that it's essential that public payphones around the town are kept," commented Clr. Trevor Hallett, while his colleague, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas, felt it would be useful to view a list of what payphones remained in the town.
Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane, thought that it was part of the licensing terms for businesses such as pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues that a point for point emergency phone line must be in place within a certain distance of the premises.
"A lot of people in the town rely on a public phone facility; as well as that, I'm not sure how these proposals affect licensees in the town," she said. Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown also pointed out that some mobile phone networks received poor reception in certain areas of the town and that the public payphones were well used because of this, while Clr. Mrs. Maureen Ward felt that in an emergency, a public phone could be vital.
"If your house is on fire, you can't run into it to look for your mobile phone to call the fire brigade," she remarked.
Councillors agreed that they should write to BT and county council voicing their concerns.