A sound system?

• I SUSPECT we were among many who were gulled by the first applications from Euro Payphone to construct new-style phone boxes in Camden High Street and elsewhere (Cops: ‘Phone boxes generate crime’, October 26).

These applications seriously failed to describe the actual impact of these boxes once installed.

We have experienced directly all the problems your article lists, including their use as depots for drug dealing, and for other anti-social behaviour. As per the photograph (above), they have also been used regularly to power amps for illegal busking.

Tom Fisher of Euro Payphone attempts to pull the wool over our eyes by describing the new boxes as imposing a “minimum footprint” on the public way. The total footprint is irrelevant.

The boxes may be narrow but in fact they extend further lengthwise than the old boxes and, as they are placed at right angles to the road, the long side faces the pedestrian flow.

As a primary function of these boxes is to serve as highly visible advertising hoardings, obstructing the pedestrian way is a sacrifice Mr Fisher and his colleagues may be happy to impose on the rest of us.

To add further insult to injury, residents anywhere close to these boxes will know that after users connect to the unit, it recognises the link by telephoning them.

This ring is highly audible, far higher than needed to communicate with an adjacent user. The Camden High Street unit is loud enough to penetrate the triple glazing in our home.

We have several times requested that the ring volume be moderated, with no response.

We doubt that Euro Payphones possess the only telephones on this planet with ring volumes that can’t be adjusted, so figure that perhaps they did not register these requests.

JOHN CLUTE
Camden High Street, NW1