PUBLIC payphones look set to become a thing of the past in Corbridge after BT officials removed three of the little-used public call boxes.

Residents say phones on Middle Street near St Andrew’s Church Cottage, opposite the Angel Inn on Main Street and near of the old police station on Aydon Road were all removed by engineers.

The removals went against a recent BT consultation exercise, conducted via Northumberland County Council, which saw parish councillors asking for the three call boxes to be retained but agreeing to the removal of one little-used unit on Stagshaw Road.

“We’re disappointed that this has happened because, although we’ve had figures suggesting they are all very rarely used, they are useful in case of an emergency,” said chairman of Corbridge Parish Council, Coun. Maurice Hodgson.

“I would have liked us to have been left with at least two in convenient locations around the village, but we have to be realistic and accept that they aren’t going to put them back.”

With a third of the estate BT currently owns used to make fewer than one call every month, the company has identified dozens of phone boxes which it is proposing to remove in a consultation which was launched last autumn.

Of the 321 public payphones across Northumberland, 91 are found within the Hexham constituency area, and 58 of those are facing the axe.

However, a spokeswoman for BT said the phone boxes in Corbridge had been removed on the basis of the first round of the consultation which dated back three years.

“The kiosks have been correctly removed following the last payphone consultation in 2014,” she said.

“They were included in the 2014 consultation and no objections were raised to their removal.”