Argyll community book hub stripped out of phone box

Items from a community book swapping service in Argyll have been stripped out of a phone box and dumped.

Donated books had been left in the kiosk at Kilmore since 2016, after it was believed – mistakenly – the site had been purchased for the community.

Last week, books and shelves were found thrown in a pile behind the phone box.

BT said the payphone was still available for calls and for insurance reasons the kiosk could not be used for any other purpose.

The telecoms giant said the items had to be removed so an engineer could access service panels.

Kilmore and Kilbride Community Council, however, said the donated items could have been treated with a more respect.

Previous members of the council had mistakenly believed the phone box had been purchased from BT for a token fee of £1, and books have been left in the kiosk for the last six years.

There is a notice inside the kiosk from August 2016 that says BT was consulting on the removal of the payphone due to the low usage.

Last week books and shelves were found dumped outside the kiosk, and new a notice had been put up inside to say the phone was still in use.

Community council secretary Sue Burden said: “We would fully respect it that it is their property – it is just the way the donated items were dumped. People are upset about that.”

BT said its payphones provided an important service to some people and its engineers worked hard to maintain them. It said for insurance reasons, working kiosks could not be used for other purposes.

The company said the books and shelves had to be removed from the Kilmore kiosk so service panels could be accessed.

A spokeswoman said: “We know many of our adopted red kiosks are now used as libraries or house lifesaving defibrillators. Around 500 have been adopted across Scotland so far.

“We consider all adoption applications carefully and where we can, for only £1, we hand over red phone boxes to communities.

“We don’t normally consider adoptions of our glass kiosks, like this one, other than for use as defibrillators, but we haven’t received an adoption request for this kiosk.”

She said the community would be contacted to discuss an adoption application.