A Bath resident has hit out at the council’s bike hangar trial, calling the bike storage pods “green measles” and suggesting they could have implications for the city’s Unesco World Heritage status.

Speaking to the Chronicle about Liberal Democrat-run Bath and North East Somerset Council’s recently begun two-year trial of the on-street storage solution, June Ward raised concerns the FalcoPods were not in keeping with the Georgian aesthetic.

The complaints are similar to the noises heard from Brighton and Hove at the back end of last year when residents reported being “concerned and distressed” by a newly installed “giant ugly” bike hangar.

> Residents “threatened with police” after “surrounding” contractors installing bike hangar

Writing to the local press, June Ward, a long-time resident of Sydney Buildings, the street pictured below in 2019 and one of the locations picked for the Bath trial, said she fears the “green measles” could spread across the city.

Sydney Buildings (Google Maps)
Sydney Buildings (Google Maps) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

“So could it be that we might see Bath attacked with a serious case of ‘Green Measles’ in Great Pulteney Street, at each end of the Royal Crescent or even in the middle of the Circus?” she asked.

“Were ‘Green Measles’ to happen it would be a field day for the graffiti artists and make Unesco’s decision whether to allow Bath to remain on their list of World Heritage Sites so much simpler.”

On its website, UNESCO notes Bath “remains vulnerable to transport pressures”, with “improved transport” based around public transport and pedestrianisation part of the management plan to protect the city’s integrity and authenticity as a World Heritage site.

And while cycling is not mentioned explicitly, the advised shift to walking and a “bus-based network” implies the “need for improved transport” will not be answered by overdependence on car use.

Bath and North East Somerset Council’s trial of the Falco-manufactured pods will see space for 24 bikes across four hangars provided on New King Street, Sydney Buildings and Great Stanhope Street, accessible via a mobile app or physical key at a cost of £42 per bike per year during the trial.

“We want to encourage more residents to leave the car at home and consider cycling instead, especially for short journeys around Bath, so we need to remove barriers which prevent people from owning and using a bike, by providing dedicated and secure cycle parking near their home,” Cllr Sarah Warren, the cabinet member for Climate and Sustainable Travel said.

But Sydney Buildings resident Ward questioned the long-term impact, suggesting Bath could eventually be “awash” with bike hangars for “folk who do not like having to haul their bicycles through the likes of a Georgian front door”.

“Sydney Buildings overwhelmingly voted recently to install large green bicycle lockups/sheds on the road with very few dissenters. They now stand at the entrance to our road along with, I believe, two others as part of an experiment,” she explained.

“The advantages are obvious and the idea was voted in by folk who do not like having to haul their bicycles through the likes of a Georgian front door. In addition, the idea is very much in line with our council’s present drive to get cars out of Bath and more and more people onto their bicycles.

“I can quite understand the reasoning behind this decision in the short-term but wonder if consideration has been given to the long-term. Some 24 years ago my husband and I found ourselves involved in a long, 18-month, hard-fought battle with the planners to convince them to allow us to put back the railings in front of our house that had been removed as part of the war effort.

“It was carefully explained to us that Sydney Buildings, apart from being one of the prettiest roads in the city, was like a ‘history of Bath’ with houses running from Georgian to the modern day and needed to be conserved and protected. A view very definitely at odds with the present council presumably.

“To the future with Bath awash with similar houses where bicycles must be taken through the front door, it would be invidious favouritism for the council to turn down others who would also wish to have a large green box in which safely to store their bicycles wherever in Bath they lived.

“I am too old to see the end of this issue and will probably be watching with interest beside the planners who so stoutly defended our responsibility to beauty and conservation for future generations over the mere convenience of the present day.”

Bike hangar déjà vu

The comments and concerns are not dissimilar, Unesco World Heritage status aside, to many of the complaints we heard from the Sussex coast where some Brighton and Hove residents objected to similar storage being offered to cyclists.

> Hove woman persuades council not to locate “unattractive” cycle hangar outside her home

Some were even “threatened with police” after “surrounding” contractors installing one such hangar last month.

It was also reported that it appeared a large vehicle may have crashed into another hangar just two months after its positioning, taking up two car parking spaces, caused outrage.

Cycle hangar in Norfolk Square, Brighton (credit – Laura King, Facebook)
Cycle hangar in Norfolk Square, Brighton (credit – Laura King, Facebook) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

The Sun newspaper got involved and found a resident willing to brand the “scheme to scrap parking spaces” as “woke” and a “cynical ploy”.