British Telecom's payphone catch-22

Residents of Leeds are stuck in a catch-22 with British Telecom, who won't remove/repair a vandalized payphone because the number has been disconnected, and disconnected numbers don't have records in BT's database.

For three years, residents and traders have pushed BT to repair or replace a derelict phone box in Worsley, Leeds.

But when records of the booth mysteriously disappeared when vandals ripped out the phone (a former favourite with drug dealers) at the turn of the century.

Without a phone number to go on, residents can only give a location…

BT's records no longer show a phone at this location, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports, so technicians are repeatedly sent to another phone box, half a mile down the road.

Every time this happens the instruction to remove the derelict booth is erased from work orders.

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