Original article published December 2022, updated June 2023
Saltford Parish Council is pleased to announce that it has ordered a replacement red phone box to be placed on Norman Road in 2023.
The old Norman Road phone box, a well-known piece of street furniture which stood near the junction of the A4 Bath Road for over five decades, was adopted by SPC on behalf of the community in 2019 after being decommissioned by BT. It was destroyed in a Road Traffic Accident in February 2022.
Following a settlement from its insurance company, at Saltford Parish Council’s December meeting the Council resolved to purchase a replacement remanufactured K6 phone box. It has been purchased from the only BT approved reseller of K6 Red Telephone Boxes, ensuring the provenance and quality of SPC’s newest asset. The order was placed in December 2022.
To enable the project to take place at both speed and at minimal cost, SPC is delighted to accept the kind offer by local company Mobius to carry out all the installation works required for free as a goodwill gesture to the Saltford community. Works to be carried out by Mobius include preparing the base, overseeing the new kiosk’s placement on site following its transportation from Newark, and all the electrical works required. Lee Bignell, Founder and Managing Director of Mobius – as well as a Saltford resident – has been incredibly helpful to SPC throughout the Norman Road project process and SPC would like to thank him and everyone at the Mobius team for their support.
SPC was also pleased to accept the generous offer from Flourish at Glenavon Farm to re-purpose the phone box to become an all-year flower display. Flourish will provide free planters with summer and winter flowers as well as overseeing their care and maintenance for a five-year period. This is once again being given by Flourish to the Saltford community for free for all to enjoy. SPC thanks the Managing Director at Flourish for this generous offer from this local company which is situated just along the A4 Bath Road to the phone box site.
The replacement phone box will be in place in June 2023, with its new purpose as a display for flowers year-round in place soon after.
SPC hopes a local company will fund and maintain a defibrillator on the exterior of the phone box, similar to its project with the Bird in Hand pub in 2021. We hope to update on this in due course, but if you are a local business who would be interested in supporting SPC regarding this please get in touch.
SPC thanks Mobius and Flourish again for their support. Please keep an eye on our website and social media for updates about this exiting project! A further update will be posted by SPC following its installation.
