Local Hero phone box in Pennan to be kept in service

A phone box made famous by the film Local Hero is to be kept in service, Aberdeenshire Council has said.

Pennan featured in the 1983 Bill Forsyth movie starring Burt Lancaster.

BT was consulting with Aberdeenshire Council on the future of the call box, as well as those located in Crovie and Portsoy.

Communities could adopt them for £1 for other uses such as defibrillator units or libraries. However the council said all three were now being retained.

In the film Local Hero, representatives of a US petro-chemical giant, who are seeking to build a refinery in a coastal village, are won over by the gentler rhythms of the local life.

One of the central characters, Mac, updates his boss in the USA each night from a traditional red phone kiosk on the seafront.

BT had received an application to adopt its Pennan kiosk as part of the scheme to transform underused telephone boxes.

Safety concerns were raised about the removal of the phone service from the village, which has little mobile phone coverage.

Aberdeenshire Council said the Pennan phone box, as well as ones in Crovie and Portsoy, would continue to operate.

The council's Banff and Buchan area manager Angela Keith said: "We know some members of the community will be very pleased with BT's decision that the phone boxes should continue to operate."

Troup councillor Mark Findlater said he was "really chuffed" the "much-loved" phone boxes would be retained.

"These unassuming red boxes have a practical function in coastal communities, for example 999 calls because the mobile signal is so patchy", he said.

"Tourists also love them as much as the residents."