Telecom companies have been accused of using “trojan” phone boxes to smuggle advertising on to the high street after a surge in applications to install them despite the boxes being almost obsolete.
In some areas the number of applications has risen by 900 per cent in two years, research shows.
Companies are allowed to install telephone boxes without planning permission but they need a licence from the communications regulator, Ofcom. They can block proposals based on design and appearance but if the applicant appeals, the final decision lies with the Planning Inspectorate, which has ruled in favour of telecom companies a number of times.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils and compiled the research, said that phone boxes were not being used for their original purpose and the law applied to a pre-digital era when mobile phones were not widely used.
The LGA looked at 12 councils and found a total rise of 927 per cent in applications for telephone boxes under permitted development rules between 2015 and 2017.
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One of the biggest increases was in Westminster, where there were 180 applications last year compared with 13 in 2015. Councillors in the London borough had complained that the boxes were “stalking horses” used mainly for advertising. Last year Maximus Networks submitted plans for boxes on Oxford Street, Piccadilly, Strand, Buckingham Palace Road, Baker Street, Covent Garden and Marylebone High Street.
The boxes would have provided 1.3m x 2m of ad space and Daniel Astaire, the cabinet member for planning and public realm at Westminster council, said that companies were “ trying to make a quick buck [with] ugly hoardings on some of our most iconic streets”.
He said: “This might have been acceptable in the Fifties but very few people use phone boxes now and the installation of 80 more will serve no community purpose in 21st-century Westminster.” The council rejected 180 applications for phone boxes in the past two years. Maximus submitted 80 applications and the inspectorate of appeals overturned rejections in 40 cases.
Other places where there was a surge in applications included Newcastle, where there was only one application three years ago but 95 last year. In Liverpool the number rose from 10 to 97 and in Lambeth there was an increase from one application to 71. Applications in Leeds increased from 21 to 96.
Phone boxes are still used in emergencies and to call abroad but Martin Tett, the LGA’s planning spokesman, said that in the digital age with many people using smartphones, telephone boxes were “relics of a bygone era”.
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He added: “While there is still a limited need for some telephone boxes in our town centres and cities, for example for emergencies, the number of applications councils have seen is simply staggering.
“Companies are exploiting a loophole in the law to allow what is tantamount to trojan telephone boxes being used as advertising spaces rather than the original purpose of providing a place for people to use a phone.”
Mr Tett said that as a result people were being confronted with “a series of eyesores” along the road.
He noted: “Councils are currently powerless to act, so we want the government to overturn the existing out-of-date legislation and give local authorities the ability to take action where this is an issue.”