A mountain rescue team is urging outdoor enthusiasts to oppose the removal of a phone box in a remote Lake District hamlet.

BT Payphones has applied for permission to remove the phone box at Seathwaite in Borrowdale.

Keswick Mountain Rescue Team said the public telephone is a vital means of calling help in an area without mobile phone reception.

A team spokesperson said: “Although this phone box may get little day-to-day use in this age of mobile phones, it has been and still is a real lifeline during emergencies.

“There is no phone reception on any network at the head of the valley and so it remains the only form of communication to the police and mountain rescue.”

The rescue team is asking walkers and other to make their views known on the online planning pages of Allerdale Borough Council, which has received the application from the subsidiary of the telecoms giant.

The Seathwaite phone lies on the route to Scafell Pike via Styhead Tarn and the Corridor Route, and sits in the shadow of Base Brown and Glaramara in the valley lying south-west of Rosthwaite.

Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, one of the busiest in the Lake District, covers the area around Seathwaite and responds to frequent calls for help from walkers and others in distress in the area.

Comments can be made on the Allerdale Borough Council website.