Home / Royal Mail / 33 phone boxes will be removed in Brighton and Hove

33 phone boxes will be removed in Brighton and Hove

Cabinet member for customer services and public realm, councillor Jacob Allen, revealed to The Argus that Royal Mail and BT have agreed to complete and fund the work.

33 phone boxes across Brighton and Hove will be taken away in locations including West Street, Old Steine, Middle Street, and Old Shoreham Road.

The removal of each phone box is subject to approval by Ofcom, who will assess whether the box is still in use and the last of its kind in the area, it will conduct a 90-day consultation before any decision is made.

Phone boxes on North Street, outside Greggs, and the route between Molton Brown and All Saints in The Lanes have already been removed.

Before and after the phone box was removed on North Street, Brighton (Image: Supplied)

Cllr Allen celebrated the news, highlighting the importance of working alongside other organisations to help improve the city.

He said: “It’s brilliant progress to see this going ahead. As the cabinet member for public realm, I do a lot internally with the council’s resources to help improve the city and our streetscape, to make it a city to be proud of, but there are lots of other organisations that have to help us on that mission.

“So, I’m really passionate about working together so that we can improve things for residents and make a city to be proud of.”

Royal Mail has also agreed to repaint all post boxes in the BN1 and BN2 postcode by April. Cllr Allen expressed how he hoped this will be extended to also cover Hove and Portslade.

He added: “The city council’s budget is in a really difficult place, so working together with other organisations that  have an impact on our public realm in Brighton and Hove is really beneficial.

“We want to work together rather than have enforcement cases; that time and resources comes at the cost of the taxpayer and ultimately leads to the same conclusion, so working together on this has been really welcome.”

Cllr Allen hopes Royal Mail will agree to extend the work to also include post-boxes in Hove and Portslade (Image: NQ)

Earlier this year, the council revealed plans to improve the area around Brighton Station, including anti-sticker paint, new jet washing machines, and new communal bins.

Cllr Allen explained the importance of making these improvements to driving tourism and retaining Brighton’s character.

He explained: “They’re small actions a lot of the times, but they make a big impact. For example, improving outside Brighton Station, which is the gateway to our city and is often the first impression for millions of visitors.

“Whether they come back or not depends on their impression of our city and so if we don’t have a lovely public realm, and people think our city is grotty and dirty and unkept and cluttered with street furniture that’s obsolete, people will leave with that impression. That’s not what we want.

He added: “We want people to think Brighton’s an amazing, unique place.

“We have some great street art, it’s really unique, and so what I’m passionate about is that we have a public realm that reflects Brighton’s unique character.

“We don’t just want a bland streetscape, we still want lots of lovely murals, but what we don’t want is obsolete infrastructure and infrastructure covered in stickers and graffiti.”




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