Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has revealed that almost two thirds of Scotland’s 2,864 working phone boxes could be removed due to lack of use.

Ofcom is considering new rules to ensure that remaining boxes that meet certain requirements will be preserved.

Mark Smith, from Ofcom, said on Radio Scotland’s ‘Good Morning Scotland’: “We are proposing clearer, stronger rules to safeguard phone boxes against removal if they are in areas where there’s poor mobile network coverage, if they’re located near an accident or suicide hotspot, or we’re aware that a number of calls had been made from the phone box over the past 12 months.”

A number of local phone boxes have been removed from service in recent years, including the one in Muchalls, with ones in Newtonhill and Portlethen under threat.