HC Deb 15 May 1969 vol 783 cc1627-8
11. Mr. Gresham Cooke

asked the Postmaster-General, in view of the inconvenience in making long-distance calls from public telephone kiosks by means only of 6d. and 1s. pieces, if he will take steps to convert such kiosk meters to accept 2s. pieces.

Mr. Joseph Slater

Yes, Sir. We shall do this when we adapt the coin boxes for decimal currency.

Mr. Gresham Cooke

Will not the Minister consider doing it now? Because of the great shortage of shilling pieces, when one makes a trunk call from a box one has to put in 6d. pieces every few seconds, which is most inconvenient.

Mr. Slater

It would be far too expensive to convert the meters in two stages. We have no fewer than 250,000 coin boxes.