Moving an historic Newtown town centre telephone box could cost more than £5,000, councillors have been told.

Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn Town Council is in the process of looking to move the red telephone box from outside the Regent Centre in Back Lane after it was adopted from BT.

Lead councillor Tracy Owen said the telephone box is “not in a great location near a busy road and tucked away" and it could be moved to another area in the town centre such as High Street and Severn Square.

The council was told by staff on September 5 that the current £2,500 budget is “incredibly short” and would not allow the council to move it.

"We've got a quotation to move the box and see how much it would cost the council and see if it was even a possibility for us," said town council development manager Zak Howard.

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"We had a budget of £2,500 for the red telephone box and I thought it was very important to get this quote just to see how far our budget would take us in terms of moving the red telephone box and we are incredibly short."

Councillors were told that it would cost £5,374 to disconnect and connect the telephone box to the power supply, move it to a new location, groundworks and installation, and reconnecting the electrics and making good of the former location outside the Regent Centre.

Mr Howard added: "That's not to do any repairs to the telephone box or install any new equipment. Even if we got three or four more quotes we are still not going to have the budget to allow to move it to do something with it."

Councillor Richard Edwards, chair of the committee, suggested that it should be discussed at a budget meeting and that the council could look into grant funding to move the historic telephone box.

There have been mixed opinions from councillors about the proposed move during the last 18 months.

Councillor Edwards previously said the council could give the listed structure “better use in a different location”. However Councillor Richard White “totally opposed" the move telling councillors that there was "nothing wrong with where it is".

"I think it’s lunacy to even consider moving it particularly as it’s a listed building and it’s going to cost a lot of money," Cllr White said.

"It’s going to be another silly project."