Plans for a new telephone box containing a defibrillator and access to charity and emergency services in Twyford have been scrapped.
New World Payphones wanted to install a modern communications kiosk on land by London Road, Twyford, which includes a telephone, defibrillator, emergency numbers guide and a local areas map.
The same plans have been submitted to Wokingham Borough Council for a kiosk to be installed in Wokingham Town Centre, next to Wokingham Hospital and in Woodley. These are yet to be decided.
Designs also contain a ‘need help’ hotline which contains contact details for support services such as The Samaritans and Childline.
A digital advertising screen would also be included on the outside of the kiosk.
But Twyford Parish Council objected to the plans, arguing that the proposed location would obstruct pedestrians with mobility issues.
The authority further said that the illuminated digital advertisement would be ‘out of character with the street scene’ and would produce an ‘uncoordinated and unsympathetic development of the public space’.
Some residents also took issue with the plans which would result in the digital ad changing every ten seconds.
The digital display would be available to Wokingham Borough Council to give out key notifications to residents, if it chooses.
One wrote in an objection to the plan that the area proposed is a ‘conservation area’ and that a ‘telephone box is not required in the village’.
Another, who lives next door to the proposed kiosk location said: “An advertising board is completely out of character for this part of Twyford and as well as being unsightly[…] it will restrict visibility for the drivers coming in and out of the car park.”
Others argued that it was a ‘poor location choice’, and that there were more suitable potential sites including outside the Twyford Library which would be ‘less intrusive’.
It comes as similar digital advertisement screens on bus stops have been approved by Wokingham Borough Council.
Local campaigners Ad Block Reading and Wokingham argued that the ads would contribute towards light pollution and were bad for the environment.
Plans have now been withdrawn from the applicants New World Payphones as of September 26.
New World Payphones has been approached for comment to explain why the company decided to withdraw the application.
