A regular hiker to the Holme Valley has slammed as “insensitive” telephone kiosk advertising on a local lane which is said to be out “totally out of keeping” with the rest of the Holmfirth countryside.

“Its a big blot on the Holmfirth landscape,” said James Gareth, 63, of Oldham, in an email to Holmfirthweb.com. “The poster is advertising university places at Leeds Trinity and features a large colour portrait of grinning college kids.

“This may do the trick an urban area, where it is most likely to target the right kind of people, but not in a lovely rural country lane just 20 minutes from Holmfirth. Who is likely to see this who would be interested in going to Leeds college – I don’t see many kids round there.”

Mr Gareth, who visits the Valley area at least twice a month for day-long hikes, said the offending kiosk was situated on Flush House Lane, Flush House, Holmfirth, and has kindly attached a photo with his email.

“The horrid thing about this is exactly the same loud poster appeared last year and I complained to a BT engineer working nearby and the next time I came across to Holmfirth, the poster had vanished so I thought it must be as a result of my complaint.  But its back again this summer which means last year’s removal was merely a coincidence and this must part of a seasonal campaign, so it will be here again and again”

“I called into Holmfirth centre last week to complain to the local paper but relised there is no longer a publication in the town so contacted the Holmfirth website instead.”

Holmfirthweb.com attempted to contact BT to invite comment however a refernce on a website said  ”…BT have indicated that the continuing growth in the use of mobile ‘phones is having a significant impact on the commercial viability of the BT Payphone service, revenue from kiosk advertising would contribute to the running costs of the Payphone service and might stem any future increase in call charges from pay phones.