A phone box cannot be removed if it is the last in an area (more than 400 metres from another phone box), and if one or more of the following conditions apply: if it’s in an area without coverage from all four mobile network providers, or if at least 52 calls have been made from it in the past year, or if it is somewhere with a large number of accidents or suicides (Harris hopes his phone box’s proximity to the A148 is what might save it), or, finally, if there is a high social need – for instance, if it has a number of calls to helplines such as Childline or domestic abuse charities.
Harris keeps an eye on Openreach, because there is a green junction box, connected to the new fibreoptic cables, barely a couple of metres from the phone box.
Last year, fewer than 10 calls were made from Sharrington’s public phone box and it is one of 10 in the North Norfolk district council area earmarked for removal.
“We’re surrounded by open, rolling, wonderful fields – arable, beautiful,” says Harris, “except they’re inhabited by field mice – and field mice have developed a penchant for the PVC that protects the copper cabling [of phone lines].
Last month, he learned that BT (formerly British Telecom) was threatening to close the phone box in the village of Sharrington, where he has lived for 50 years, when he saw it on the agenda of the parish council meeting.
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