The red phone box at the Square sits in the heart of the community and has appeared on a consultation list for proposed removal by BT.

It's one of three local boxes under threat.

Jim Clarke (60) said: "This phone box has been here since 1935 – I feel very passionate about it and the community are really fired up about it."

Over the years, the call box has also fallen into disrepair, and has not worked for six months. Despite contacting BT, it became clear that the telephone box would not be cleaned up in time for the town's centenary gala day on June 14.

Jim said: "BT had not been painting or cleaning it, so the box looked really tacky. When I found out nothing was going to be done about it, I went down on the night before the Gala Day with buckets of water and Fairy Liquid to clean the inside and outside of the box-it was gleaming."

He went on: "But on the Gala Day, the box didn't look much different because the paint had faded so much."

This inspired Jim to take on the job of restoring the landmark phone box to its former brilliance, and he has been working at the call box daily, with paint, putty and cleaning agents.

He said: "I want it to look great and to be something that we can be proud of. It's a big job but I want to get it right."

The local villagers are right behind the cause and have set up a petition in the Post Office which already has over 100 signatures.

The phone box is the only public phone in the village, as the local pub no longer has one, and villagers are adamant it should be there for emergencies.

Admitting that he is just an amateur, Jim said: "I'm a cross between Rambo and Frank Spencer. I'm like Rambo because I'm determined to get something done, but I'm also like Frank Spencer because I'm hopeless at DIY!"

Since investigations began this week, the phone line has been restored to the box much to the delight of Jim and the rest of the community, but Jim is determined that the box should not be removed.

Anna Steven, senior press officer for BT Scotland said that repairs had been carried out to the box in September after vandals had destroyed six panes of glass. The kiosk was reported to be working in December 2007 and BT were unaware of a fault until this week.

Responding to the work that Jim has been doing at the call box, a BT Payphones spokesperson said: "While we appreciate the sentiment behind a member of the public starting to re-paint the kiosk, there are health and safety regulations concerning active maintenance on kiosks, and public intervention is not something we would encourage."

BT Payphones has written to West Lothian Council as part of a formal consultation process on their proposed programme of public payphone removals. BT states that the number of calls made from public payphones has more than halved in the last three years. Other local call boxes in the Journal and Gazette area which feature in the consultation are the High Street in Linlithgow and Philipstoun.

West Lothian Council leader Peter Johnston said: "We are currently in discussions with community councils and are now gathering information from the community to justify whether these payphones should be removed."

Initial responses to the consultation will be received up until August 18 and will be published on the Council website on August 25. Final responses must be in by September 26. Responses should be marked "BT public payphones consultation" and sent to: Steve Lovell, Development Planning, County Buildings, High Street, Linlithgow, EH9 7EZ or email: steve.lovell@westlothian.gov.uk

editorial@journalandgazette.co.uk