Avon? Where on earth is that?
Here's a geography lesson for you all.
When I was born, I was born in a county called Avon.
Avon itself was a bit of an unwieldly mash of places, and a lot of people here would say they were from 'Somerset' or 'Bristol'. Or maybe even the much looser term 'the Westcountry'.
In the 90s, everything changed. There was local government reform and in 1996 Avon was no more, broken up and the area I lived in became the rather ungloriously named Bath and North East Somerset.
We've always been uneasy bedfellows, to be honest. Many of us "countrysiders" believe all the investment goes to Bath with none left for us. We paid for the Bath Spa, an ungainly scheme that proved exactly why local councillors should not attempt to control a massive building project. A Millenium Project, it was due to open in 2002 but eventually opened in 2006, wildly over budget.
The highlight was the Three Tenors performing a concert in 2003 for the 'offical opening' (already a year too late). The builders lay all the cobblestones outside the building, the pools were tiled and filled with water. Lots of press shots were taken of the famous Three Tenors admiring the baths. And as soon as the concert finished, it was all ripped out and work continued. They even had to rip back up all the cobbles on the road outside.
The baths were something mad like four times over budget, and we're still paying for it today in our council tax with no benefit for local residents.
Out here in the sticks, we pay higher council tax than those in the city. This is despite us paying for their parks and open spaces to be maintained. Bath residents don't pay for our (very minimal) parks to be maintained.
Even the name conjures up feelings of being considered to be the poor bedfellow. Bath! Oh, and North East Somerset.
I'm going off topic a bit, but I'm just trying to highlight how we've got a case of confused identity out here.
And that isn't helped whenever I give my address out on the phone or fill out an online form.
Because, here's your challenge for the day: despite Avon disappearing into nothingness 14 years ago, find a form that has "Bath and North East Somerset" on it. I've never been able to convince any company that Avon no longer exists, if I say "BANES" (the rather ugly acronym for our area) on the phone when making an order we hit a road block. The only way around it is to say "Avon".
All I can say is - if this name change had happened in London, this wouldn't be an issue.
(Incidentally, I prefer to say I live in "Somerset", I feel like it makes up more of my identity)
When I was born, I was born in a county called Avon.
Avon itself was a bit of an unwieldly mash of places, and a lot of people here would say they were from 'Somerset' or 'Bristol'. Or maybe even the much looser term 'the Westcountry'.
In the 90s, everything changed. There was local government reform and in 1996 Avon was no more, broken up and the area I lived in became the rather ungloriously named Bath and North East Somerset.
We've always been uneasy bedfellows, to be honest. Many of us "countrysiders" believe all the investment goes to Bath with none left for us. We paid for the Bath Spa, an ungainly scheme that proved exactly why local councillors should not attempt to control a massive building project. A Millenium Project, it was due to open in 2002 but eventually opened in 2006, wildly over budget.
The highlight was the Three Tenors performing a concert in 2003 for the 'offical opening' (already a year too late). The builders lay all the cobblestones outside the building, the pools were tiled and filled with water. Lots of press shots were taken of the famous Three Tenors admiring the baths. And as soon as the concert finished, it was all ripped out and work continued. They even had to rip back up all the cobbles on the road outside.
The baths were something mad like four times over budget, and we're still paying for it today in our council tax with no benefit for local residents.
Out here in the sticks, we pay higher council tax than those in the city. This is despite us paying for their parks and open spaces to be maintained. Bath residents don't pay for our (very minimal) parks to be maintained.
Even the name conjures up feelings of being considered to be the poor bedfellow. Bath! Oh, and North East Somerset.
I'm going off topic a bit, but I'm just trying to highlight how we've got a case of confused identity out here.
And that isn't helped whenever I give my address out on the phone or fill out an online form.
Because, here's your challenge for the day: despite Avon disappearing into nothingness 14 years ago, find a form that has "Bath and North East Somerset" on it. I've never been able to convince any company that Avon no longer exists, if I say "BANES" (the rather ugly acronym for our area) on the phone when making an order we hit a road block. The only way around it is to say "Avon".
All I can say is - if this name change had happened in London, this wouldn't be an issue.
(Incidentally, I prefer to say I live in "Somerset", I feel like it makes up more of my identity)