Phone box plan put on hold

hone box plan put on hold

Kathleen Bearsby celebrates Telstra's decision to protect Clifton's only public phone.

TWO months ago, Clifton's Kathleen Bearsby discovered a notice saying that Telstra planned to remove her village's only public phone box. Today the phone still remains, but the notice is gone.

Telstra recently reversed its decision to disconnect the phone in the wake of a spirited community campaign.

Mrs Bearsby collected over 120 signatures for a petition protesting the plan.

With poor mobile phone coverage in the area, Mrs Bearsby argued that the payphone which sits directly outside her home in Lawrence Hargrave Drive - was essential for locals and visitors.

"If there's an accident on the [Sea Cliff] bridge, how do they get help?" she told the Northern Leader in June.

The phone box was earmarked for removal as part of a Telstra plan to reduce payphone numbers across Australia.

Mrs Bearsby said the decision to leave the phone in Clifton was a victory for people power.

"I posted the petition up in the phone box and people couldn't sign it quickly enough," she said.

"We're only a small community, but we take care of each other and stick together."

Mrs Bearsby said she expected the phone to continue receiving plenty of use thanks to the regular streams of visitors crossing the nearby Sea Cliff Bridge.

Telstra spokesman Warrick Ponder said it was great to see the community of Clifton responding to the original notice.

"We have said all along that we wanted people in local communities to let us know if their phone box is important to them," he said.

"Stickers have been placed in individual phone boxes to encourage feedback."

Despite the response at Clifton, Mr Ponder said many similar notices placed in payphones throughout Australia had attracted no complaints.