Residents will need to pay nearly �3,000 to keep the phone boxes

British Telecom has told the residents of Edenbridge, Kent, they will not remove the four public phone boxes if they hand over �2,782.

BT wrote to the town's MP, Sir John Stanley, saying the booths could stay open if a third party paid the losses.

A BT spokesman said the phones had only had a handful of calls in the last few years and there were others nearby.

Customer need

The spokesman said: "In each of these cases there is an alternative pay phone in a reasonable distance, and by a reasonable distance I am talking 200 to 400 metres.

"We are quite happy to debate this at a parish council or local authority level.

"We are absolutely clear the provision we are leaving in both the parish and wider local authority is more than adequate to meet the customer need."

Local residents and councillors want to salvage the phone by the Women's Institute Hall because the building is used as an emergency meeting point and has no internal phone.

BT said it would cost the town �745 to keep this particular phone box.

Mike Downing of Edenbridge Town Council said: "We are horrified because the phones they want to take away all serve particular needs within our community."