Pay phone boxes at Broadmead in Bristol’s city centre will soon be removed and replaced with a new digital advertising screen.
The BT Street Hub will be installed on Merchant Street and will let users access wifi, make free 30-second phone calls and charge their phones. Digital displays on each side of the hub will show LED adverts.
BT now has planning permission for its new street hub screen, after Bristol City Council’s development control committee gave approval on August 24. Councillors were told the new hub would be an improvement to the street than “obsolete and eyesore” phone boxes.
Read more: Anger over ‘horrible’ advertising screen plans for Broadmead to replace payphones
Cllr Andrew Varney said: “I’m a little bit concerned about how the phone box removal is being used almost as a bargaining chip to get permission for these digital hubs. I’m really pleased that these phone boxes are going to be removed, they’re mostly obsolete and real eyesores. But I would just like them to be removed anyway, rather than waiting for an application for a digital hub to come along.”
The new hub will also include sensors to count pedestrians and bicycles. Concerns had been raised about the plans by several local residents and campaign groups, as well as Avon and Somerset Police who feared the new hub could be used for antisocial behaviour. But councillors said none of these objections would stand up in a planning appeal.
Cllr Richard Eddy, chair of the development control committee, said: “We have to look very carefully at the grounds we give consent or refuse, and I don’t believe these are sustainable reasons to oppose this.”
