Calls to reintroduce phone booths on the streets of Broxburn and Bathgate have been cut off.
Whilst the updated designs also carry defibrillators, councillors criticised what they branded as primarily advertising billboards.
The Local Review Body backed planners’ earlier rejection of the black kiosks in the two West Lothian towns when appeals went before the committee.
The phone kiosks resemble the later 1970’s style of kiosks rather than the traditional red phone box with a door.
New World Payphones had appealed against a refusal of planning consent for two kiosks in busy streets in both towns – giving councillors more than 100 pages of argument as to why the kiosks complied with existing planning regulations.
Broxburn Councillor Tony Boyle told the meeting he would recommend rejecting the appeal over the plan for a kiosk at 122 East Main Street saying: “It is the wrong thing in the wrong place.”
And for the Bathgate plan to site a similar structure in 39 George Street, local councillor Willie Boyle said: “When the pedestrian precinct went in there more than 30 years ago the whole idea was to de-clutter the street scene. That’s why the old fashioned red telephone boxes were taken from the Steelyard.
“I don’t see why all of a sudden there’s a need for public telephone boxes and I don’t see the justification for more advertising. We have a serious problem in Bathgate with shop windows plastered with advertising.
“It’s a constant battle to get these removed and here we are being asked to agree to put another advertising hoarding in. That might be okay in big cities but not in Bathgate. Absolutely not.”
Councillor Pauline Orr said Bathgate’s Steelyard was a welcoming open space in the heart of a historic town.
She said: “I don’t think an advertising structure of this nature is required. It adds to the street clutter. The majority of people have a mobile phone. A defibrillator can be placed elsewhere without being as obtrusive.”
Planners had initially refused the plans by New World Payphones, describing both structures would be “detrimental to the amenity of the public realm”.
They said: “No compelling locational, cultural, or heritage justification has been submitted to support the siting of the development in this location.
“The kiosk would be incongruous within its setting and would have a harmful impact on the street-scape, to the detriment of the visual quality and character of the public realm.”
In their appeal the company said the kiosks were designed to fit in with traditional street architecture. They added: “The digital display forms only one element of a wider multifunctional structure delivering public communications services and an emergency defibrillator.”
The firm argued that new national planning policies “promoted the delivery and enhancement of digital communications networks and recognised their role in supporting communities, businesses and public services”.
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter.
