I thought it was about time a shareholder contributed to this discussion, so here I am. These are my feelings, not just Bushy's, so if anyone wants to check up on this, just email me or whatever.
I have heard on the grapevine that one particular Board member whose self-confessed, personal pet project the demolition of the 'pillar' wall is, that he is now going around getting prices for not only the metalwork to support the bit of wall for when the 3 or so tons of ancient fabric are removed to form a clear sightline for the one night a week when he actually goes into the pub to see a band, but also metalwork for two new signs on the front, one of which - presumably - is to replace the wooden one made a couple of years ago, and still perfectly serviceable I would have thought. This particular Board member is pretty used to having his own way with historic structures, and it is beginning to look as though the same might happen to The Bell.
We were hoping for at least a small percentage of shareholders to air their feelings about all this before any decisions were made to spend a load of their money on what could be considered unnecessary alterations, but so far I think there has been 2.
When the pub was first bought with 536 people's money, the ethos was that things should stay as they were as much as possible, obviously allowing for inevitable change to prevent the place from stagnating.
All the changes that have taken place (with the exception of the colour-scheme of the ladies toilets) have been done in a way that the changes and improvements appear as minimal as possible, but now we have a Board member who seems set on putting his mark on the place, despite the fact that he hardly uses the pub at all.
When it was suggested that the Gents toilets were refurbished immediately after the Ladies to save money, he more or less said that nobody cared about the Gents, so why bother to spend money on them? The Gents remain a disgrace, and there is a strong possibility that they will stay that way for the foreseeable future as money is spent on stuff which falls under the category of, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
Why don't any of you other shareholders and customers say what you think one way or the other about this? If these things get bull-dozered through now, then you will never have a say again in the future, that's for sure.
All you men who have to put up with those stinking toilets, would you like to see a bit of money spent on them so that using them could be much less of a horrible experience?