Village stages tin can protest for BT

USING tins cans and string as a makeshift telephone is the stuff of childhood, but in one Cornish village the device is being used to hit out at telecom giant BT.

The childlike toys began appearing in Perranwell, near Truro, last week after BT revealed that it would take until the end of August to fix the village phone box after it had been vandalised.

Residents have watched with amusement as more strings and tins appeared in the telephone kiosk, which was damaged in June.

Another nearby phone box in the village of Perranarworthal was also vandalised, but that has been earmarked for closure as part of a cull of 200 red phone boxes in Cornwall by BT.

The strange goings-on began when the publican of the Royal Oak, Richard Rudland, decided to brighten up the box with a pot plant.

“When the phone box was vandalised, we were left with an empty, unsightly box so, since my pub is opposite it, I put a plant in there to make it look nice,” he said.

Mr Rudland said that since then a mystery villager had been adding the makeshift phones, to the delight of local people.

“Nothing this strange has ever really happened in the village before, but it does make people smile,” he said.

“Now there is even a booklet called the Perranwell Telephone Box Preservation Society where people can write their own comments and notes of support.”

Jason Mann, spokesman for BT, explained that the phone box had been badly damaged by vandalism in June, which is why it was taking so long to be fixed.

He said: “It is not just a case of putting in a new mechanism.

“We also have to make repairs to the fabric of the kiosk and that needs specialist equipment.

“It has taken longer than usual because of that.”

Mr Mann added that, despite the proposed closure of the Perranarworthal phone box, the Perranwell kiosk would be staying.

“There are no proposals to remove the kiosk in Perranwell,” he said. “This phone box is not on the list of those to be taken away.”