The traditional red telephone box is not only a structure that has become synonymous with the British image, but it is becoming largely redundant.
As a result, those places with a red telephone box are trying to come up with new uses for them to ensure that they are still used and do not disappear from our landscape.
Montgomery town council in Powys turned its listed, disused phone box into a mini tourist information centre. They installed racks and leaflets into the traditional phone box, but councillors fell foul of the council's own planners after it painted its listed telephone box blue, covering over the red. As it is listed, such an action requires planning permission, which they did not have.
As a result, a retrospective planning application has had to be submitted, and the town Mayor Mike Mills admitted that the box may have to be repainted red. Mr Mills said, "It stood there for a bit while we decided what to do with it and then we decided it would make a good tourist information centre". He added, "We painted it blue to match the colour on the town newsletter and it is quite eye-catching in blue, but since then we've discovered that we needed planning permission to repaint it. We knew the phone box was listed but we didn't realise we'd need planning permission to repaint it."
For more information, see the:
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Wales) Regulations SI 2012/793.
