Wednesday 21 November 2007

A threat to our clock tower!

It was on an inside page of the B&R this week - a County Councillor, Graham Brown, objected to the amount of money that needs to be spent on essential repairs to the clock towers at Hay and Knighton, and suggested that they should be demolished instead!
Then he asked why the County Council should pay for the upkeep of the clock towers at all. That one was easy to answer - the County Council owns them, so has to be responsible for their upkeep.
Another councillor, Gwyn Gwillim, suggested that they should only repair the clock towers if the local councils agreed to take over the running of them afterwards. This was voted against, and the County Council can't force the local councils to take the responsibility on.
For the moment, it seems, the money has been agreed on, and the clock towers are safe - but it's worrying that this sort of thing can even be suggested. Hay clock tower is such a local landmark that it was used in the opening credits of the Antiques Roadshow. I don't know where Councillor Graham Brown was elected in Powys, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Hay (I know I didn't vote for him).

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Hay on Wye sounds fantastic!! i have only ever visited this place once for the book shops which you are famous for! I will have to come and revisit this clock tower just to see the beauty of it? It seems a shame that these clock towers were built many years ago, only for the local councils to say that they can no longer protect and care for them which they should be doing? By the way we in LLandrindod Wells also never voted for this person you have spoken of lol.

We have a local councilor named Gary Price who rushes to the new agents every time the B&R is out just to see if his name is in the paper. My husband actually whitnessed him doing it. He must be on a ego trip!