LAST CALL

Few people will have noticed but the public telephone box at the corner of King's Avenue and Bigby Road has been removed.
In today's era of mobile phones, email and text messaging, the old phone boxes, which have served communities like ours so well, are getting less and less use. So it's no great surprise when the plug is pulled.
Sources suggest Brigg Town Council was not informed the King's Avenue facility was being removed. If they had been it's hard to think of any valid reasons to object, other than the box could be used in a 999 situation, perhaps to summon an ambulance or fire engine.
In decades gone by, telephone boxes in Brigg got so much use that queues used to form outside them. And Brigg folk use to tap on the window - not always politely - to ask whether the current caller was going to be much longer.
In the days before house phones became the norm - never mind mobiles - public call boxes in Brigg helped summon assistance from the town fire brigade for chimney blazes, and ambulances for mums-to-be.
The boxes also became popular meeting places, particularly for teenagers.
As with all facilities, it's a case of use it or lose it. So, if the public phone box near your stands idle for most of the day, don't be surprised if the men arrive in their van one day and take it away.