RED telephone boxes in Ottery and Tipton St John have been put up for adoption.

RED telephone boxes in Ottery and Tipton St John have been put up for adoption.

British Telecom (BT) has offered two Tipton telephones and Ottery's Yonder Street box to the town council for a pound a piece after one of them was used just eight times in a year.

Town council treasurer Paul Lewis voiced a note of caution during discussions over the offer last week. He said: "There is no room for sentimentality here, there will be on-going costs and liability. This isn't just �3 it's a lot more.

"You have to think about mindless damage done to the things, BT is doing this for a reason, it will save the �400 it would cost to get rid of them."

Councillor William Laitinen wanted the community to decide the telephone boxes' fate. He said: "They are quintessentially English, why not give them to the residents associations? Lets not just write this off because it will cost money."

Cllr Roger Giles backed this sentiment and said: "They are part of our heritage, to remove them would be detrimental to the street scene."

Tipton's residents' association has been invited to adopt their telephone boxes, while the future of Ottery's Yonder Street phone is still up for discussion.