The list comprises of Broughty Ferry Rd, Craigie Drive, Kingsway East, Balmoral Avenue, Fintry Road, Summerfield Avenue and Queen St, Broughty Ferry.

Ms Robison said, “There may be potentially valid arguments for removal, but some people will rely on these phones. Anyone who wants to object should contact the city council’s director of planning.”

BT’s head of Scottish affairs, Ian Shanks, explained, “In recent years, due to the growth of mobile phone ownership, there has been a significant drop in the usage of public payphones in the UK.

“There are 6200 payphones in Scotland and over two-thirds of these no longer cover their costs.”

Industry regulator Ofcom is reviewing BT’s universal service obligations, which include the requirement to operate public payphones to meet “reasonable consumer need”.

However, its findings will not be published until late this year. Mr Shanks said it would be unrealistic for BT to halt its consultation programme on removals until then.

He went on, “Last year we worked with Scottish local authorities on the first stage of the payphone rationalisation programme and feedback has been provided to Ofcom as part of the universal service review. One area which we hope will be addressed through this review is the removal of the obligation to provide cash payment facilities at all public payphones.

“Our past consultation with local bodies has clearly identified demand for access to a payphone, but not necessarily with the ability to pay for calls with cash – for example access to the emergency services is regularly quoted as the primary reason for box retention.”

Providing cash payment facilities accounts for a large part of the cost of running a payphone and is also a reason for theft-related vandalism, he said.

BT was proposing to remove 176 payphones and convert 264 to cashless operation, which would still allow 999, operator-controlled, credit card and charge card calls.