PHONE boxes may have been exploding in York - but they are also disappearing from streets and trunk roads across the region.

BT is removing kiosks from certain locations in the wake of falling revenue, caused primarily by the mobile phone revolution.

Some are understood to have gone from lay-bys alongside major trunk roads such as the A64, while five others are set to be removed in the near future from streets in York.

One phone box in a lay-by alongside the A64, near Tadcaster, is lying gutted of all telephone equipment, with its windows smashed.

Motorists who have broken down and do not have a working mobile would have to walk more than a mile along the dual carriageway to get to the nearest phone.

Streets in York which are set to lose a box include Fishergate, Goodramgate, Coda Avenue and Rougier Street.

BT said nine more boxes have previously been removed from the City of York Council area.

It said the kiosk removals were part of a phased programme to take away 30,000 boxes from across the country, which began last year. A spokesman said there had been a 46 per cent drop in the total number of calls made from boxes over the last three years.

This coincided with a big increase in the use of mobiles, and also in other forms of communication such as emails, particularly among 15 to 24-year-olds, who had previously been some of the biggest users of kiosks.

But he said local authorities were consulted before they were removed, with 42 days allowed for objections to be received.

Many were removed when two payphone kiosks were situated next to each other, or within a short distance, so that phones were still available for the use of the community.

He stressed that even after the removal programme had been completed, there would still be more telephone boxes than when BT was privatised in 1984.

He said that all seven boxes destroyed by fireworks in York would be replaced at a total cost of atleast £20,000.

He added that scores of phone boxes had been damaged by fireworks nationwide.

Updated: 10:37 Friday, October 17, 2003