Frustration grows at lighthouse bell delay

Tracey Fowler - 

Residents have accused Portishead Town Council of dragging its feet over the return of a lighthouse bell to the town.

After months of investigation, last year residents Carol Thomas and Annette Hennessy helped uncover the whereabouts of the Battery Point Bell at the Bristol Port Company.

They began campaigning to bring the bell ‘home’ and looked at numerous potential sites in Portishead from which the historical item could be publicly displayed.

Mrs Thomas says that over the past seven months since the bell was found people have continually asked her when it will be on display.

She said: “I work in a shop and every day members of the community ask me how much longer they will have to wait to see the bell back in its home town.”

Councillors have deferred making a decision on where to display the bell because they are waiting for a valuation on land next to the new library building Horatio House. Residents, however, argue that a site on Wyndham Way, the location of the old sea wall, is the best place for the bell.

Speaking at a Portishead Town Council meeting, Mrs Hennessy said: “On the advice of North Somerset Highways officers a preferred location on Wyndham Way central grass reservation has been pinpointed.

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