A VILLAGE phone box could be lost forever despite being put on sale for £1 – because the upkeep could be considerably more.

The red kiosk, in the West Somerset village of Huish Champflower, is one of 24 in the district being considered for removal by BT as figures show it has been used once in the last year.

But rather than scrap it, BT is offering the box for sale at the nominal price under its Adopt a Kiosk scheme.

Councils are given the chance to buy the kiosks for £1 if the community wants to keep them. But the responsibility of maintaining it then falls on the local parish or district council.

A BT spokesman said: "The scheme gives local authorities the chance to buy the red phone boxes from BT and, for legal reasons, a nominal fee of £1 is charged. This is something being offered if a village, for example, feels the phone box should be retained for heritage reasons or because it is part of the village identity."

The kiosk would no longer function as a working phone. But the parish or district can pay £500 a year to keep it working. It costs BT about £1,000 a year to run and maintain each box.

But Huish Champflower Parish Council said taking on the box, which was vandalised a year ago and is yet to be repaired, would be too expensive.

Chairman Steve Kimsey said: "We have looked into it but it's not really as simple as buying the phone box for £1. We would have to take out insurance and in this increasingly litigious age we live in, it could be a burden that we can't really afford as parish.

"It is sad that we will probably have to see it go. It is a shame but times have changed and these sorts of phone boxes just don't get the use they did in the past."

The council held a meeting about the kiosk but no-one turned up.