Local UK govt steps up to save red phone boxes

Britain's bright red telephone boxes are increasingly unused and unprofitable, but far from unloved.

The fate of more than a third of the country's 12,700 iconic red telephone booths is up in the air: telecommunications company BT says it wants to scrap about 400 of them and is in negotiations with local authorities about what to do another 4,000.

Villages and local governments are stepping up efforts to salvage the street furniture, converting the booths into community notice boards, greenhouses, or possibly even miniature art galleries. They have until Saturday to apply to adopt a phone booth.

The small English hamlet of Lighthorne, about 90 …