The sooner B&NES gets permission to introduce a tourist tax, the better. How else are they going to fund the general maintenance of our heritage public spaces?
Bee Burt has sent me some images from Abbey Green and says,
“These (stone) sets have been installed so far apart (presumably to make them go further) that degradation due to wear & the weather has made them stand proud of the mortar & makes them a real hazard.
It’s a false economy to adopt this method, with more maintenance & accidents.
The photos show the area outside 44AD Gallery, but there are plenty more.”
I agree, Bee. For tourists and locals alike, it’s like stepping over rocks on a beach!
The paving outside the Roman Baths shop at the town end of Bath Street is also in need of relaying.
One now retired conservation officer fought the battle of setts for years – in the end he was ordered to stop, after he said some were laid so badly in Queen Street he wanted them relaid. However, where Harrington Street joins there had always been the wide stones used as a crossing – I used to point them out to people. By June 2016 even these were removed – you can see the difference on Google maps. As for the ones in Bath Street – they are quite wrong for Bath – the present ones are imported granite setts, whereas they should either be lias or the harder wearing pennant stone. I’m worried the pitched setts, used on steep slopes, will soon be deemed just badly laid and removed. No – they were laid on edge to give horses grip in icy weather.
I am in total agreement with Bee. There are so many aspects of the public realm in Bath that are either non-existent in terms of implementation [just witness Westgate Street] or in a serious state of disrepair [as demonstrated by Bees photos]. The presentation of the City is in desperate need of a revolution related to acknowledging the importance of the Public Realm and the only route to enable this in financial terms is by the implementation of a tourist tax