{"id":66708,"date":"2025-05-01T21:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/66708\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T21:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:37:13","slug":"edinburgh-held-hostage-to-fortune-by-bt-as-councillors-fight-new-phone-hubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/66708\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh ‘held hostage to fortune’ by BT as councillors fight new phone hubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appeals to allow the construction of nine new video advertising boards on pavements in Edinburgh have been struck back by councillors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Across the UK, BT<\/a> has been looking to replace their telephone boxes with \u2018street hubs\u2019, which consist of a large pillar in the ground with advertising displays on two sides.<\/p>\n

They provide wifi, 5G signal and a free speakerphone accessed through a touchscreen on the side, and give 5% of their advertising screen time over to the council.<\/p>\n

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BT has tried to get permission to install the kiosks in the capital for seven years, but in almost every case councillors have pushed back on their applications and appeals.<\/p>\n

To date, only one kiosk has been approved, on Dalkieth Road near the Royal Commonwealth Pool.<\/p>\n

Among the locations BT had appealed were on Potterrow near the Edinburgh University campus, on the Morrison Link near Haymarket Station and on Rayburn Place in Stockbridge.<\/p>\n

All nine applications had been referred back to the council after BT was denied planning permission and appealed to the Scottish Government.<\/p>\n

In all cases, councillors rejected the kiosks on the grounds that they would harm the visual appearance of the local area.<\/p>\n

In some of the appeal rejections, councillors cited additional reasons, such as impact on conservation areas or the kiosks taking up too much space on narrow pavements.<\/p>\n

In most of the applications, the telecommunications firm said that they would only remove old telephone boxes in some areas once they could install the new street hubs.<\/p>\n

Councillors have long said that this is an attempt to incite them to approve the kiosks, given the poor state of old phone boxes in the city.<\/p>\n

Many have been vandalised, and a good number no longer have functional phones inside.<\/p>\n

Conservative councillor Tim Jones said: \u201cThis is a disgrace. I do not appreciate BT holding us almost hostages to fortune here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are saying that one of the reasons we should accept these hubs is because they will replace telephone boxes which are actually being vandalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, actually, they can easily solve that problem by removing the telephone boxes without making these applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have that within their power, so I do not find that a very valid argument for installing these particular hubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

SNP councillor David Key said: \u201cThe applicants make much of the community benefits of these structures. Personally, I see no community benefit whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrat councillor Hal Osler, convener of the body that considered the appeal, said: \u201cTo me, there is a very careful line here that we do have to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve gotten the point across that this is an additional clutter on pavements that is an additional sort of distraction for individuals. It is a stand alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very hesitant about granting anything that would increase the level of confusion and clutter on our pavements. I do understand that we have to improve our digital inclusion, but I do believe there\u2019s other ways we can do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not putting these hubs exactly where the phone boxes are, which are tucked away. They are choosing to put them in a very prominent location.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join <\/b>Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here<\/b><\/a> and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Appeals to allow the construction of nine new video advertising boards on pavements in Edinburgh have been struck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[22340,748,33881,1102,33880,4884,33885,33884,712,33882,16,15,33883],"class_list":{"0":"post-66708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-applications","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-councillors","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-edinburgh-university","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-hubs","15":"tag-pavements","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-telephone-boxes","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-video-advertising"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114434739760729831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}