A phone box dubbed the "dial-a-fix" kiosk because its main users are drug dealers and addicts is being removed.

Police and residents have been campaigning for five years to axe the BT box in Richmond Parade, Brighton, because of the drug deals.

Yesterday the phone was taken away and the box will be moved to a site on Grand Parade next week.

Addicts would dial a dealer's number from the booth then wait for their drugs to arrive.

Up to 30 people at a time would queue outside the kiosk, in front of shops and customers.

Mohammed Asaduzzaman runs the Goa Spice of Life restaurant next to the box. He said: "People can finally feel safe here after all these years. It will make such a difference. It was not just people ringing up to order drugs, it was a centre for all the drugs business."

He said even after the phone was removed there were five men crowding into the box to divide up drugs.

Mr Asaduzzaman, 45, has endured years of misery with addicts stealing wallets from his customers and on one occasion urinating on the restaurant window.

Neil Hughes, 42, manager of TJ's Hairdressers in Richmond Parade, said he had to forcibly escort several addicts from his shop and had been asked for change for the phone by as many as nine drug users in one hour.

He said: "My clientele is more elderly and it has affected trade because they dither about coming in for a haircut with all those people hanging round outside. I'm delighted it is going."

The box was taped off by police in 2002 after The Argus first revealed the problem but it was reopened when BT insisted it was a well-used community resource and a good source of revenue.

It escaped unscathed last year when the company scrapped thousands of loss-making phone boxes because the increasing popularity of mobile phones had made them obsolete.

Removing the box has cost £6,000, half of which was paid by BT and half by the Tarner Area Partnership out of Government funding for neighbourhood renewal.

Inspector Nev Kemp of Sussex Police said: "I am very pleased this box is going. It's much harder for us to trace addicts if they're making calls from a phone box which is why they use it. This booth has been a particular problem because it is not covered by CCTV."

Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper said: "This has been a very prolonged campaign and it is a relief BT is no longer making money out of drug dealers and addicts."

A spokeswoman for BT said: "This was well-used phone box so we did try and run through other measures before removing it. We tried barring incoming calls but, after discussion with the council and the police, we decided removal was the only option."