JColman

Published at 01:00, Thursday, 30 September 2004

By Jon Colman

WASDALE Mountain Rescue Team has added its influential voice to a campaign to save one of the area’s most remote telephone boxes.

Team leader Julian Carradice said the kiosk, at Cockley Beck in the Duddon Valley, is “a lifesaver”.

The payphone, which lies in the valley between the Hardknott and Wrynose passes, is facing the axe as part of a BT cost-cutting campaign.

It was recently granted a six-month stay of execution but remains likely to be removed in the New Year.

Earlier this year, local broadcaster Eric Robson launched a campaign against plans to axe the 20-year-old facility.

And Mr Carradice this week said the phone could mean the difference between life and death for a stricken walker.

“We would very much like to see it stay,” he said.

“It is an essential thing, particularly in a valley where there is no mobile phone reception for miles.”

He said the rescue team regularly received calls from the phone box to warn them of hikers who had suffered injury or got into difficulty after scaling Scafell Pike.

As well as being a lifesaver, Mr Carradice said the phone saves the rescue team hours, as it is frequently used to report lost walkers, enabling the team to quickly locate them.

“It saves us an awful lot of time – from our point of view it is a huge advantage,” he said.

Mr Carradice said the phone was also used to report other incidents, such as road traffic accidents, on nearby roads.

BT last month gave the kiosk a temporary reprieve after South Lakes MP Tim Collins intervened on behalf of worried locals.

But the firm insists it is not being used often enough to “pay its way”, and will be removed unless there is a “significant upturn in usage”.

BT wants to scrap 255 phone boxes in Cumbria which it claims are not adequately serving the community.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk