THE Ryedale area of North Yorkshire could be in line to lose the majority of its telephone boxes after they saw usage fall by 90 per cent in 10 years.

The removal of the boxes - or their conversion to other purposes - is now the subject of a BT consultation with the district’s parish councils.

There are 110 payphones across Ryedale. Of those, 70 payphones are under consultation, and of the 70, some 51 are the traditional red kiosks.

A spokesman for BT said: “BT is committed to providing a public payphone service, but with usage declining by more than 90 per cent in the last decade, we’ve continued to review and remove payphones which are no longer needed.

“Any removal of payphones is carried out in strict adherence to the Ofcom guidelines and, where appropriate, with the consent of local authorities.

“In all instances where there’s no other payphone within 400 metres, we’ll ask for consent from the local authority to remove the payphone.

“Where we receive objections from the local authority, we won’t remove the payphone.

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