Broadway Trust Adoption of the BT Phone Boxes on the High Street
The Broadway Trust has recently adopted one of the two BT phone boxes, just above the Green, by the crossing near Rikki Tikki. We would have liked to adopt both, but BT wanted to retain the telephony in the one nearer Rikki Tikki which they think assists with mobile reception in that area.
We have already found a willing Broadway villager, Katy Williams, who has volunteered to help restore and redecorate the adopted phone box and have had a contribution towards the cost of materials from local artist Ken Morgan from the sale of a painting featuring the phone boxes. We and Katy are confident that using the original paints it can be made to look fresh and attractive. The restoration is unlikely to be complete until the spring 2024 due to weather constraints.
Thank you to the 223 individuals who took the time to take part in our recent phone box survey to share their views on how the newly acquired High St phone box could be used.
The Trust board have met and discussed the results (shown below). The defibrillator and book exchange were neck and neck as the most popular use for the Trust phone box.
The book exchange was felt to be more difficult to maintain and keep tidy, we’d instead defer to the charity shops and library for low cost or free books. So therefore the decision has been made to opt for installing a defibrillator, which will benefit from the prime and very visible position on the High Street, for the benefit of both villagers and visitors. We are delighted to say that the Broadway Horticultural Show have kindly offered to meet the initial cost of the defibrillator. We are consulting with local First Responder Robin Farnworth about practicalities on installation and future maintenance.
Work will start on the refurbishment of the phone box (thank you again Katy Williams) and installation of the equipment in the spring when weather conditions allow.
We hope to be able to purchase the second neighbouring phone box from BT at some point in the future and will revisit the other uses and alternative suggestions offered in the survey at that point which included everything from a bijou art gallery, mini museum, plant display to vending machine!
Do please consider joining the Broadway Trust for just £15 a year to support our work and help with the cost of annual maintenance of the phone box.