ROADSIDE telephones which have formed a vital link for stranded North Yorkshire motorists are soon to be phased out.

Up to 27 purpose-built AA roadside telephones in Yorkshire and the North East are to be removed because of lack of use.

Bosses at the AA have revealed that only 6,000 of the five and a half million phone calls they receive each year are from roadside phones, with the majority of motorists using mobile phones.

A landmark AA sentry box on the A166 at Garrowby Hill, near Stamford Bridge, is among those phones that have become obsolete.

All sentry boxes, which were first built as a shelter for patrols, will be left standing, but the telephone will be removed.

The wooden boxes, first built in 1911, soon became available to members and early examples were equipped with fire extinguishers. Eight have now been given listed building status.

Kerry Richardson, of the AA, said: "The boom in mobile phones has made our roadside phones virtually redundant."

Patrols now use computerised deployment systems and are directed to motorists with state-of-the-art route guidance equipment.

Other telephones in the York area that will be removed are on the A64, west and east bound in Fulford, and on both carriages of the same road near Tadcaster.

A telephone at the Hole of Horcum beauty spot, in the North York Moors, near Whitby, will also be closed.

Updated: 09:06 Thursday, September 19, 2002