PLANS to cut the lines to almost 100 phone boxes in the Borders have been unveiled by BT.

A hit list of 96 kiosks stretching across the region have been published on a hit-list.

And community councils in the affected areas have been asked to help compile a Borders-wide response to the proposals.

Although 48 of the phone boxes which are targeted weren't used at all in the past 12 months, many of the kiosks regularly received and made calls.

In Selkirk four of the earmarked phones were regularly used over the past year - Scotts Place (96), Linglie Road (74), Bleachfield Road (53) and Heatherlie Terrace (44).

And the kiosk on Hawick's Bourtree Place was used a total of 297 times in the previous 12 months.

Both of Walkerburn's boxes - Galashiels Road (31) and Tweedholm Avenue East (17) - are occasionally used as well as Innerleithen's Hall Street box (23) and Tweedbank (29).

But the vast majority have only been used a handful of times, including Magdala Terrace (4) and Larchbank Street (1) in Galashiels, Gattonside (2), Clovenfords (1), and Gordon (1), if at all.

A BT spokesperson told us: “Most people now have a mobile phone and calls made from our public telephones have fallen by around 90 per cent in the past decade.

"We consider a number of factors before consulting on the removal of payphones, including whether others are available nearby and usage."

Scottish Borders Council are compiling the views from community groups ahead of submitting a formal response to the proposals ahead of the consultation deadline in October.

BT hopes that many communities will take up their offer of adopting any threatened kiosks.

Many traditional phone boxes have already been adopted across the Borders, following on from the last round of closures in 2016, with uses from mini libraries and tourist information to housing defibrillators.

And BT will continue to provide a power supply as part of the £1 adoption deal.

Jane Wood, BT Group Scotland director, added: “We’re pleased to be giving even more local communities the chance to adopt a phone box.

"With more than 370 payphones now adopted across Scotland, this is a fantastic opportunity for communities to own a piece of history.

“The opportunities are endless and we’ve already seen some amazing transformations.

"Applying is easy and quick and we’re always happy to speak to communities about adopting our traditional BT red payphone boxes.”