Gassing on the phone? The workforce on this gas production platform will be after a traditional red phone box was given an unusual new home miles out to sea.

Gassing on the phone? The workforce on this gas production platform will be after a traditional red phone box was given an unusual new home miles out to sea.

The kiosk, a British cultural icon held in high affection but left behind by the mobile phone revolution, is one of hundreds uprooted from villages and re-planted elsewhere.

Its windswept location, at the mercy of the elements, is reckoned among the most exposed but one that is delighting workers of the Babbage gas production platform who now have a private place to phone home.

Offshore installation manager for E-on Ruhrgas Graeme Fitches, from Gorleston, said the odd-looking addition came about following a conversation among the crew about the bright red corporate colour scheme of E-on matching perfectly with a red phone box.

He said: “This was followed up, and has now become a reality. Located just outside the accommodation entrance, it is fully functional, and affords the workforce with the novelty of making a call from such a box, plus probably the only place where a truly private phone call can be made with a sea view.”

Mr Fitches said he bought the kiosk from a company in Peterborough for �2800, adding a gas-safe phone and light for �550 plus labour, adding: “But it's worth every pound when you see them smiling as they use it.”

A crew of 41 are currently working on the platform 80 miles off Hull, many of them from Great Yarmouth based Offshore Design Engineering.