Bike shed in front of Buys Ballot building to be used again after all

The reopening of the bike shed was announced in an email sent to employees on Friday. The faculty’s head of accommodation and the university’s programme manager concluded, after receiving countless negative responses from employees, that the new locked bike shed beneath the Koningsberger building doesn’t suffice.

DUB had already written (in Dutch ed.) about the employees’ discontent last year. It was far too easy to steal bikes, it was said, and the bike racks were inconvenient.

The mail says the bike shed in the Koningsberger building will remain open for now, and that the frequency with which that bike shed is being used will be checked in the coming months.

If the employees in the Buys Ballot building have their way, the mail will mean an end to the constant back-and-forth about where they are to park their bikes. They’ve been fighting with their employer about this since the middle of last year.

At the time, demolition had already started on the bike shed in front of their building without any announcement. After protests from staff, the university decided to fix the damage (see photo). The shed would remain open until its replacement in the basement of the Koningsberger building was ready. The replacement has been open since late last year, but the new bike shed clearly doesn’t meet the employees’ requirements.

The mail says the old bike shed in front of the Buys Ballot building will remain in use for at least a few more years. The university wants to build new bicycle sheds after the demolition of the Earth Sciences building, which is planned to take place in 2020.