ALMOST one in five public payphones are to be scrapped in Scotland after the network fell foul of the mobile phone boom.

Where they were once a feature of the high street, usage of the working street phones has fallen sharply and many have now been deemed obsolete as more and more people buy smartphones.

Operator BT said the number of calls made from kiosks has fallen 90 per cent over the past decade and that no calls have been made from about 700 in the past year.

A total of 947 kiosks will now be scrapped, leaving 3,840 working phone boxes north of the Border, down from almost 7,000 in 2003.

BT initially targeted about 1,500 payphones, almost a third of its estate, for removal as part of a rationalisation drive, but after consulting local councils, the company has agreed to retain 428 of those that were under review.

Many of the phones being removed are in Aberdeenshire (85), Dumfries and Galloway (75) and Fife (97). Glasgow will lose 29.

Just four of the 104 under consideration in the Borders will be removed and 98 have been retained in the Highlands.

In its response to BT’s consultation, Highland Council warned the scrapping of some boxes could have an impact on road safety. They said the move would leave long stretches of the road network without payphone provisions.

Callers should be able to contact the emergency services on their mobile phones, no matter how poor the reception or how little credit callers have, according to BT.

But Highland Council pointed out that, without payphones, emergency operators would not be able to call people back in areas with zero reception.

During its consultation period, BT pledged it would retain any payphone where there were objections to it being removed.

The closure of so many phone boxes is another example of the changing face of the high street, which has also been seen the disappearance of former stalwarts such as bank branches and post offices, Last month it was revealed a bank branch had closed every day on average this year, with Bank of Scotland, TSB, Clydesdale and Royal Bank of Scotland all shutting locations.

At the start of the year it was announced five Crown Post Offices in Scotland are to close as part of a UK-wide programme.

A BT spokesman said it followed Ofcom’s consultation on payphone removal, unless there was another payphone within 400 metres, when the process was not required. He added: “We are committed to provi- ding a public payphone service but demand just isn’t there any more.

“With usage declining, we have continued to review and, where necessary, rationalise our payphone estate to continue to meet remaining customer demand and manage our costs.”

“As an alternative to removal, we continue to actively promote the Adopt a Kiosk scheme to all councils whilst being committed to maintaining the payphones that remain.”