Plans to replace York phone boxes with digital hubs featuring advertising screens and offering free calls and WiFi have been lodged.
Applications from BT would see their Street Hubs installed in Foss Islands Road, Fulford Road, Hull Road and Walmgate following the removal of existing phone boxes.
The hubs would feature LCD screens to display adverts and public messages, along with Wi-Fi and phones offering free calls.
BT’s plans stated the hubs would significantly enhance local communication facilities and services, future-proof high streets and would be an improvement on existing pay phone kiosks.
Plans for the hubs in York come as more than 950 Street Hubs have been installed across the UK.
They were first unveiled in 2021, 100 years after the installation of the first national K1 phone boxes.
James Browne, BT’s head of street at the time, said the new Street Hubs were part of efforts to offer a digital communications service designed for the 21st Century.
The company’s plans follow a seperate application for JCDecaux to install digital advertising screens offering calls and other services in York city centre.
Council planning officers refused the application for the company’s communications hubs and defibrilators amid concerns over their impact on pedestrians and public areas.
BT’s plans for York would see the hubs installed following the removal of existing glass phone boxes, where feasible.
They would be installed by Premier Inn in Foss Islands Road and outside Frederick House, opposite a parade of shops in Fulford Road.
BT’s plans would also see Street Hubs installed by shops on the corner of Hull Road and Melrosegate and the Medway House parade of stores in Walmgate.
Plans stated many of its phone boxes were currently sitting unused and were becoming targets for antisocial behaviour and vandalism.
The new hubs would display adverts and use the revenues from them to fund onboard services which could also include monitors to track air quality and pollution.
Adverts would change on the screens on either side of the hubs every 10 seconds.
City of York Council would be offered five per cent of the total screen time for free.
The hubs would be monitored all hours, be inspected once a week and cleaned at least twice a week.
BT’s latest Street Hubs, which are being rolled out jointly with the Global media and advertising company, follow the installation of earlier InLink models from 2017.
InLink UK went into administration in 2019 following the installation of 494 of their structures to 23 UK cities.
Plans stated the sleek, modern hubs were part of the company’s push to move public connectivity forward.
They added they would be an improvement on outdated and worn-down pay phones and BT was working to stop them being used for nuisance calls in some areas.
BT’s application stated: “The proposed Street Hub’s will help to deliver a
comprehensive network of connectivity within the borough whilst decluttering York’s streetscene.”
