Time for Bath’s Guildhall to be renamed. What’s wrong with plain old Town Hall? After all, the historical name is sounding a little pretentious for an authority with no money left in its coffers.
Then again, it never was the home of a guild and there is no longer a corporation.
The bike stands – or rather lack of bike stands – outside this listed heritage building are the latest victims of the lack of funds.
Regulars will know that – as a cyclist – l have been raising the matter of the disappearing stands for some time.
Again – this is an authority trying to cut pollution within the city centre and therefore bikes are to be encouraged.
We are now down to three stands on the Guildhall side of the High Street.
I have finally managed to get an official comment from B&NES which runs as follows:
“During removal of the cycle stands for the Remembrance Parade it became apparent that the bolts which attach the stands to the pavement were badly corroded.
Subsequent inspection of these cycle stands revealed that they are beyond repair.
The cycle stands will need to be replaced with new cycle stands, these works will be taken incrementally, as and when funding becomes available.”
You can read two things into that. One. A lot of money was wasted buying expensive looking hoops that have turned out to be not fit for purpose.
And two. There is no funding to become available. More evidence – on the street – of how run down this city is becoming. Just go and count the rusty holes in the paving.
PS. As you’ll see in the comment below, if you changed the Guildhall’s name it would technically have to be called City Hall. However, even that l feel is too grand at the moment.
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Bath cannot have a Town Hall as Bath is a City. If the name needs changing from Guildhall it should be City Hall as in Westminster City hall.
A city is also a town. See Birmingham Town Hall, Manchester Town Hall, etc.
Might you perhaps dual it down a bit on criticising the council? We all have our little local gripes but the fact is that national government policy is the principal determinant of how much (little) a local council has to spend. Their budget has been falling in real terms for a decade and on current government plans it’s going to go on falling for years to come. They in the business of very hard choices now and I’m afraid there are higher priorities than bike racks.