Since 2017, the telephone box in Dunmore Street has been owned by the Community Council.
Since taking ownership, the phone box has provided a number of services to the village including a mini museum and a book exchange.
More recently, during the covid pandemic lockdown, it has become a focal point for the village as a food exchange, actively supported by village donations, by Hewitt and Aker the local deli in Killearn, who supply fruit and veg, and by the Balfron Co-op, who regularly donate dry goods and who also ran a raffle for food.
It has brought much joy to the local wee ones during Christmas and Easter with some special chocolate treats!
However, it is not looking so good – it is listing to one side, its door has had to be removed and replaced with a temporary one, and it is badly rusting.
After considering various options, we decided to fund raise to give it a full restoration in return for the service it has provided to us all during the pandemic.
Our first round of fund raising is now complete – many thanks for all your contributions to our crowd funding appeal which raised over £1,000. Also thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund and to The Paul Trust for supporting us with very generous contributions. In total, we have £8,000 budget to work with.
The phone box will be collected in November 2021 by a company who specialises in the refurbishment of telephone boxes. It will take approximately 6 weeks for the refurbishment and upgrading works. While it is away a new concrete base will be formed and on its return the phone box will be secured to this. In the interim there will be a temporary store to ensure continuity of the food exchange.
Since October 2021 the food exchange service at the phone box has become one of the Co-op local causes at Balfron and Aberfoyle stores. This funding will allow the phone box to be stocked with non-perishable items which are available for the local community. You can contribute to this until October 2022 and details on progress can be found by clicking this link.
We are grateful for everyone’s ongoing support and look forward to the phone box continuing as a valuable community asset for many more years.
