Residents have been left angry and frustrated after the removal of a public phone.

Villagers in Downderry contacted the Cornish Times after discovering that the only public phone in the village had been removed and only the empty red kiosk was left standing.

Although no official date has been given for when the phone was removed, it was first noticed on February 5.

Christina Jefferies, from the village, said: 'Somehow the parish council were not informed until it was too late.

'What we are really worried about is that there is very poor mobile phone reception here and if anyone was to get into any trouble on the beach, there would be no way of contacting the emergency services.'

Review

In April last year BT sent a letter to Caradon District Council, dated April 2, 2008, informing the chief planning officer that, as part of an Ofcom review, BT was writing to all local authorities and informing them that a 90-day consultation had begun to discuss the need for phone boxes in areas with little use.

The increased use of mobile phones was one of the reasons given for the move.

Caradon later sent out letters to all district councillors on May 8 informing them of the consultation and when it was due to end – on July 2.

In the letter there is no specific request from Caradon for councillors to liaise with parish councils and David Moore, a conservation officer at Caradon, admitted that it was assumed that those discussions would take place. He said: 'We did receive a response from most councillors about the BT proposals so we then forwarded that on to BT. It was assumed that following the letter councillors would talk to those within their district and pass on any concerns to us.'

BT remains adamant that it followed the correct procedures.

Jason Mann, a spokesman for BT, said: 'We sent a letter out to the local authority and it was then their responsibility to pass on any concerns to us.'

After the closure of the consultation, Deviock Parish Council wrote a letter to both Caradon and BT, dated October 2, saying that members were unhappy that they were not consulted. The letter refers to knowing only of an upcoming secondary consultation, which outlined two possible options; to either 'adopt a kiosk' – allowing the parish council to buy the kiosk for £1 but lose the working phone, or 'sponsor a kiosk' – giving the parish council the option to pay BT £500 a year to maintain the working phone.

Clear

Jason added: 'We have received an application from the parish council to adopt the kiosk. It was made clear that the phone would not remain.'

District cllr Jim Candy said that the lack of communication had led to confusion about the situation. He said: 'It seems to have gone through the parish council half-heartedly and I'm not sure whether BT have followed the correct procedures.

'There seems to have been some sort of mix up in communication and the whole process seems to have gone wrong.'

Tim Pullen, the clerk at Deviock Parish Council, has confirmed that the council are in the process of adopting the box but says that the outcome is far from satisfactory.

He said: 'It really is the only option that we have because we cannot afford to pay £500 a year to keep the phone running.'

BT have said that they will not replace the phone now that it has been removed.