Villagers were astounded when instead of replacing a missing hinge on a public phone box, BT decided to remove the door.

Iwade parish councillor Amanda Hurrell contacted the company to inform them the telephone box outside Iwade Village Hall in Ferry Road, had a broken hinge but instead of fixing it an engineer removed the door completely.

She has since been told the door won't be replaced.

Mrs Hurrell said: "The lady said that every call is a result of vandalism and that I should speak to my PCSO if we live in an anti-social area - the cheek of it.

"It makes the village look untidy and being in a prominent place, visitors will think we don't care about our village, which is not true.

"I am totally amazed that they took away a perfectly good door that just need a new hinge fitted."

A spokesman for BT said: "Pay phones team have confirmed that the door has been removed and it is our policy not to replace doors which are damaged beyond repair. The engineer states that this is the case with this door and the damage was most likely caused deliberately.

"We are committed to retaining and looking after our pay phone estate, but with the vast drop in usage and cost of vandalism, we look at all ways to minimising costs. Many of our new payphones are open."