HOPES are high today that an iconic red phone box threatened with being thrown away could be saved.

The future of the box at Bent Hill, Felixstowe, has been reconsidered after protests from people who do not want to see it removed.

The Seafront Gardens Project Board – which is masterminding the �2.78 million renovation of the resort’s nationally-important gardens – wanted to remove the box to create a new and modern entrance to the gardens when they are renovated.

The plan now is to remove it from its present position, and find a new home either on-street elsewhere in the town centre or even within the gardens scheme, perhaps as a feature among some of the planting.

A spokesman for Suffolk Coastal council said: “The current proposal regarding the telephone box is that we would adopt it and it would become our property, but BT would first remove all its phone equipment.

“No final decison has yet been made as to whether the box would be moved to a more suitable location within the gardens.”

Town councillor Michael Sharman, who is campaigning for the box to be kept, said:“I would be happy for it to be moved. It could be given a rub down and a new coat of paint and made to look a real feature.

“ It wouldn’t be a phone box any more, but then it hasn’t been used for a long time, and a new use could be explored.”