From Cornwall to the Highlands via the Letters page of The Times, community leaders are frothing with Churchillian defiance about telephone boxes.

British Telecom wants to shut down about 9,000 of its 62,000 payphones, of which 60 per cent are unprofitable. Many, it says, are used to make as few as one call a month.

However, it has encountered fierce resistance from hundreds of campaign groups, local newspapers and politicians who will never, ever surrender their payphones without a fight. Plaid Cymru has started a petition and the Scottish Conservatives have been championing the issue since spring.

Tomorrow is the first of two deadlines for councils to register their opposition to the plans with BT. A spokesman said: “There’s not really a need for these campaigns. All you need to do is tell your local council why you need to keep the phone box. However we are also a business, with shareholders and costs. Payphone usage has halved in the last two years and calls are still declining.”

BT has removed 31,000 payphones since 2002 as mobile phone use has become almost universal. Research by Ofcom suggests that only 7 per cent of adults now use phone boxes regularly.

One box in Poynton, Cheshire, is earmarked for demolition after it was used to make only one call last year.

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