Parliamentary officials have issued a defiant statement saying plans to silence Big Ben for renovation work will go ahead, after Theresa May criticised proposals to silence the chimes for the next four years.
Officials said the decision to stop the bell tolling until 2021 as part of the restoration of the Elizabeth Tower was agreed by three separate parliamentary committees in 2015.
MPs were reportedly unaware that this would involve the clock being silenced for four years, double the length of time being taken to negotiate Brexit.
The House of Commons commission, however, said it had heard the concerns of MPs.
“In light of concerns expressed by a number of MPs, the House of Commons commission will consider the length of time that the bells will fall silent,” it said.
Speaking at an event in Portsmouth on her first day back at work after her summer holiday, the prime minister said the Speaker, John Bercow,
should review the decision urgently.
“Of course we want to ensure people’s safety at work but it can’t be right for Big Ben to be silent for four years,” she said.
“And I hope that the Speaker, as the chairman of the House of Commons commission, will look into this urgently so that we can ensure that we can continue to hear Big Ben through those four years.”
The commission, the administrative body that runs the Commons, had already announced a review of the decision to silence the bongs, which has been criticised particularly strongly in conservative papers such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.
In a statement on parliament’s website following the prime minister’s intervention, the commission said: “Starting and stopping Big Ben is a complex and lengthy process. The striking hammer is locked and the bells can then be disconnected from the clock mechanism. The weights are lowered within the weight shaft to the base of the tower and secured in a safe position. The whole process takes around half a day to complete.
“Following a thorough assessment, experts have concluded that it would not be practical or a good use of public money to start and stop the bells each day, particularly as we cannot fully predict the times that staff will be working on this project.”
Any new discussions with MPs about the length of time the bells will fall silent will “focus on undertaking the work efficiently, protecting the health and safety of those involved, and seeking to ensure resumption of normal service as soon as is practicable given those requirements”, the statement said.
“The bells will cease to ring, as planned, following the chimes at noon on Monday, August 21.”
The plan is for Big Ben to continue to chime on special occasions such as New Year’s Eve and Remembrance Sunday, but some MPs have complained the clock is being decommissioned for far too long.
The project will involve extensive repairs to the whole clock tower and the dismantling and restoration of the clock.
The 13.5-tonne bell will not be removed but it will be checked for cracks.
One reason given for the silencing of the clock was to protect the hearing of workers, prompting complaints in the press about health and safety overkill.
The TUC released a statement this week saying protecting workers from a 120-decibel sound was “just plain common sense”.
Tourists view the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Great Clock and the ‘Big Ben’ bell, at the Houses of Parliament, in London.
