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Phones hope for 'no signal' Snake Pass
ROAD safety officials are considering whether to request extra phone boxes on the isolated A57 Snake Pass after The Star highlighted how stranded motorists have to walk miles for help because there is no mobile reception.
Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership is looking at making the case to BT, which is obliged to install extra payphones even if they do not make a profit in areas of "social need".
Criteria laid down by industry regulator OfCom includes where there is a walk of more than 15 minutes to an existing phone box. There is just one phone box on the 14-mile Snake Pass between Ladybower Reservoir and Glossop - at The Snake Pass Inn - and mobile phones do not work for the length of the moorland route.
Most people who break down end up walking to the pub, as do those needing to alert the emergency services if there has been an accident - costing vital minutes for injured people. Sheffield mum-of-two Emma Hollingworth, aged 34, of Ecclesall, who was stranded for almost two hours with daughter Charlotte, four, and son George, eight months, while her husband ran two miles for help after breaking down, welcomed the development.
"I'm delighted with this news - but it's come about because of what happened to people like us and could have been thought of before," she said. "Wherever there is a lay-by, there should be a phone."
A spokeswoman for Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership - which includes the police and councils - said: "The partnership is considering the case for submitting a proposal to BT." A BT spokeswoman added: "If we receive a proposal to install further kiosks on Snake Pass, and the proposals when examined meet with the Ofcom criteria, then we would install."
Extra phone boxes are an alternative to installing emergency phones or mobile phone masts - which the Peak District National Park opposes due to the impact on the sensitive environment.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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