Red Phone Box Revival

Red phone boxes are being used in Comrie to save lives.

18:39 30 April 2015

As mobile phones become more and more popular and widely accessible, fewer people are using iconic red phone boxes. In 2003, Scotland had nearly 7,000 of these phone boxes and this was reduced to less than 5,000 in 2015. Despite this, red phone boxes are not going anywhere, at least the ones that remain. 

 

Alan Moffat, a manager of the first response team in Comrie, has transformed red phone boxes into live-saving tools. 

 

He said: It's a community access defibrillator site; we have converted it and put a defibrillator in for the use in the local community. I know it can save lives, it's probably one of the best chances people have of recovering from a cardiac arrest."

 

Meanwhile, an artist from Portobello has used a disused phone box into a vibrant art exhibition space. 

 

Steven Wheatley said: "I'm a bit nostalgic and I appreciate what they add to the street scene so I was keen to retain it.”

 

BT Scotland director Brendan Dick said: "Clearly as people adopt mobile technology, as those networks expand there is less demand for them in some areas.

 

"Yet in some urban parts some of them are used very extensively, so there is a future for pay phones in the broader sense."