No need to stop Big Ben, says man who looked after it for thirty years
THE man who maintained Big Ben’s clock for decades has branded the decision to silence the bell for four years as ‘nonsense’.
Melvyn Lee urged parliamentary officials to consider ways of striking the main bell when repair work takes place on the tower around it.
In addition, a former project manager who was in charge of the Elizabeth Tower’s last major renovation said only those work- ing at the very top would need hearing protection.
Their intervention comes as Tory MPs insisted that Big Ben should ‘bong us out’ of the EU on March 31, 2019.
From midday on Monday the Great Bell is being taken out of action for four years over health and safety concerns for those working on the Elizabeth Tower – meaning that it could be silent at the historical moment for the country.
Setting out the timetable for Brexit earlier this year, Downing Street said the country would leave ‘when Big Ben bongs midnight’ on the date. However, Commons authorities have refused to commit to suspending repair works so the bell can mark the departure.
Mr Lee owns Thwaites and Reed, one of the country’s oldest clockmakers. The firm maintained the Great Clock for more than 30 years from the mid-Seventies.
Yesterday he said there were ways the tolling of the bell could easily be stopped and started, adding: ‘The need to close it down for four years is nonsense.
‘In fact there are two ways to have the clock strike the hour without the quarter chimes,’ he wrote in a letter to the Telegraph – and explained how it could be done.
Rodney Perry, project manager when stonework repairs took place on the Elizabeth Tower from 1983 to 1985, said workers only needed ear defenders when close to the bells.
He said: ‘The contractors’ programme was so arranged that the Big Ben bell was only silenced for short periods while repairs were carried out on the clock mechanism itself. No doubt it could be done again.’
Yesterday Tory MPs said it would be disappointing if Britain left the EU with ‘a wimper’. Jacob ReesMogg said: ‘Big Ben ought to be kept striking as much as possible during the repairs, as long as it doesn’t deafen the work force.
‘It would be symbolically uplifting for it to sound out our departure from the EU as a literally ringing endorsement of democracy.’
Peter Bone said: ‘We are being liberated from the European Union superstate and Britain will again be a completely self-governing country. Where will the eyes of the world be? On Parliament and Big Ben.’
Andrew Bridgen added: ‘We need to go out with a boom as we regain a sovereign parliament once again.’
A Commons spokesman said: ‘We cannot yet give a confirmed date for when chiming will resume, however the intent is to maintain striking for important events, such as Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve.’