Resident pleased with tourist map action after newspaper letter

Tim Barnsley resorted to writing, tongue-in-cheek, to the letters page of the Berwick Advertiser in mid-August to appeal for a burglar with lock-picking skills to cope with the problem of the missing key to the map's glass case.

He offered to buy a roll of double-sided tape to re-install the map on Marygate.

Less than a week later, Town Clerk Gareth Davies announced on Facebook: “In the end the council didn’t get a locksmith, but our friends at Fabvent drilled out the lock and installed a new one’

“A quick spruce up with some double-sided tape and the job has been done until we’ve got a more up-to-date map sorted out.”

Mr Barnsley welcomed the progress so far and said: “I am looking forward to the new map appearing well before the influx of tourists to see Berwick Rotary Club’s Christmas lights and market.”

He added: “Since I raised the problem with the map outside the town council offices, I have seen one in a similarly poor state on Wallace Green. The Town Clerk has now said that he’ll look at that one too.”

In an update this week, a Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council spokesman said: “We have had to remove the map box at Wallace Green because it was so corroded that we couldn’t get it open. We’ll need to decide if we can repair, replace or come up with a better-sited map at the location.”