THE 27 telephone kiosks in Ryedale earmarked by British Telecom for removal are to be saved.

The dramatic change of heart follows campaigns by Ryedale District Council (RDC), North Yorkshire County Council, Ryedale MP John Greenway parish councils and the Gazette & Herald, which exclusively revealed the axing plans last year.

It was argued that to take out the traditional red-painted kiosks would cause severe hardship to many communities, especially in remote rural areas.

In a letter to RDC, Terry Johnson, commercial manager for BT Payphones, said: "I have very carefully reviewed the numerous objections and the supporting evidence made by parish councils and others, and accept that the issues have raised valid concerns with our proposals for the removal of payphones within the community.

"I am, therefore, removing the proposed removals from our programme with immediate effect."

Mr Johnson said 16 "very low revenue" kiosks would be converted to payphones on what he described as a "basic cashless service", adding: "This service would still allow calls to be made to emergency services, BT operator and enable reverse charge calls. In addition, BT charge cards could be used."

The U-turn by BT came after Mr Johnson met RDC's director of operations, John Davison, last week.

While BT had re-thought its plans, the issues on payphone business were still "very real", said Mr Johnson, adding that the increase in mobile phone ownership had had a major impact on the use of kiosks - which had halved in the last three years, with a drop in revenue of 40 per cent - and that 60 per cent of BT's 69,000 kiosks did not meet the cost of running the service.

However, he had carried out a further review of all payphones in Ryedale, and had decided to retain them all. "I am very hopeful that this will be the final review of payphone provision in Ryedale," said Mr Johnson.

RDC chairman Coun Brian Maud said the news was "very welcome" because many isolated rural communities would have been hit hard if they had lost the kiosk, especially as many were in areas used by tourists.

Updated: 15:07 Wednesday, March 09, 2005