§ Mr. Robensasked the Assistant Postmaster-General the capital and annual maintenance costs of a public telephone kiosk.
§ Mr. BurkeThe average capital cost for urban and rural kiosks, including the cost of providing a pair of wires to the telephone exchange, is approximately £160, and the average annual maintenance costs, including the cost of lighting, cleaning, and painting, are £20. Allowing for the annual charges on the capital expenditure, the total annual costs amount to about £30.
§ Mr. Robensasked the Assistant Postmaster-General (1) upon what basis 448W he determines whether a public telephone kiosk should be provided or not;
(2) what he regards as the estimated annual minimum number of calls or revenue required to warrant the provision of a public telephone kiosk.
§ Mr. BurkeThe Post Office will provide a telephone kiosk wherever the full receipts from local calls, the call office fees (2d.) on trunk calls, and in addition half the receipts from the trunk calls themselves are likely, after two or three years, to cover the total annual costs of the kiosk. In addition, a kiosk will be provided in rural areas wherever there is a post office, irrespective of financial considerations. Where neither of the above conditions apply, the Post Office will provide a kiosk in urban areas if the local authority will guarantee to make good for seven years the difference between receipts and expenses, if more than £2 a year. In rural areas where technical conditions permit, a kiosk will be provided if there is no existing call office within half a mile and if the local authority will contribute £4 a year for five years towards the cost of providing the kiosk.