The red phone box on the corner of Belle Vale Road and Grange Lane has been a local landmark for many years. In fact it was a yellow phone box in the 1980s, Gateacre having been a pilot area when Post Office Telephones became British Telecom and the new company was considering moving away from 'pillar box red'.

In August 2017 BT announced that half of the UK's public payphone kiosks were to be removed, owing to the dramatic decline in usage. However, Ofcom issued a series of rules, one of which was that, if a box was the only one within a 400 metre radius, then the local Council had to be informed first, a notice displayed, and the public given six weeks to object.

As far as we are aware, none of these steps was taken in the case of our box. We always understood that, as a Giles Gilbert Scott designed 'type K6' kiosk, situated within a Conservation Area - it would be earmarked for retention. Our local councillor Alice Bennett has asked the Council's Legal Services department to investigate, and their response is currently awaited.