VIDEO: Residents fight to save telephone boxes in Burgess Hill

Here they are pictured outside the phone box in Freeks Lane. They have been given permission to restore it after persuading the town council to adopt it.

With help from volunteers the group are now turning it into a book swap and information point for the community.

Anne Miles-Eves, 57, a translator who lives in Mill Road, said: “We have cleared it out and have painted the inside. The shelves are going to be made by Burgess Hill Shed, a wonderful local carpentry organisation.

“These telephone boxes like this one which is a 1950s K6 are being taken out of our towns. They have lost their phones because no one uses them anymore.

“We are keen to keep them because they are iconic. They are landmarks and are part of our heritage.

“It is for the community, people can come in and put adverts in it, children’s books will go in as well. We are hoping to adopt one in West Street as well and if we are successful we want to paint it in bright colours.

“There are three people who live near that are working to save it. The town council only need to pay £1 if they adopt it.

"They have been worried about vandalism and have talked about having a lock on them but I think they should be open.”

Anne came up with the initiative after seeing a campaign about adopting telephone boxes before they are removed.

“I saw this one in Freeks Lane which I thought was in a really nice place, it is very visible,” she said.

“I would like to see more saved in our town. And doing something like this brings people together and people have different skills.

“If people want to save a telephone box near them in the town they can join our group.”

Mike Duck, 66, has lived in the town for 44 years. He became involved in the group after seeing a poster Anne had put up.

“We feel they are part of our heritage and we want to preserve them for the future,” he said.

“I went to the council meeting with Anne and two others. It went really well – they said if we were going to look after it we could have it. We hope to encourage other people to do it.”

Town councillor Janice Henwood came to show her support outside the phone box.

“The town council have adopted this phone box because they knew there was community interest and they showed a lot of wisdom,” she said.

Heather Warne, a member of Burgess Hill Local History Society, also came to show her support.

“If you take away all the street artefacts and replace the houses with modern houses then the town loses its profile and its characters,” she said.

“Burgess Hill has a really old history. We have lovely old houses tucked away. We have lost a lot of our phone boxes already, it would be great to save as many as possible in the town, and I think the books idea is fantastic.”

Martin Bradley, 77, a member of Burgess Hill Shed, moved to the town two years ago. He will be helping build the bookcase.

“I think it is an excellent idea and I hear it has been very successful in places and we have a good population here,” he said.

If people want to get involved they can email [email protected] or visit the group’s Facebook page: @FLaCKburgesshill