Love locks - basically just vandalism?

What, even if your local council had to increase the council tax to pay for constant removal of the locks - or had to make the savings elsewhere, say, by closing public toilets?

Interesting - that's one practical solution, I suppose!

Do they have a grace period for the locks to stay there, though? Everybody allowed 48 hours before removal? Would they even know when they were first attached?!

It would probably lose some of its allure if he was there waiting at the end of the bridge, wielding his bolt cutters, ready to pounce as soon as the loved-up couple steps off the bridge. What if the couple took great exception to this and a fight ensued?

And what if a rival scrap metal dealer decided to get in on the act, so there's a couple experiencing their tender romantic symbolic moment whilst two blokes are looming over them and waiting to steal a march on the other guy?!

I think, if this is going to work realistically long-term, the only practical solution is for couples to attach their lock, take a couple of minutes to take all of their photos for the memories/Instagram, and then unlock it and take it home again with them for their mantelpiece/memories box/shed. Surely that's got to be preferable to knowing that a scrappie will cut it off and put it in his sack along with all of the others before you've even left for home?

Ah well. Different strokes and all that. One person's padlock is another person's love heart graffiti or glitter bomb.
(Although you could tell other folks on here to lighten up, not just me......)

@BeatrizBoniface I'm aware of that lol, some people just seem way too angry about this. I think it's sweet and it doesn't offend or concern me in the slightest ☺️

That's the thing, though. Whatever the technical rights and wrongs of doing it, ONE couple has 'claimed' this as 'their' love-bridge, with a simple unobtrusive romantic gesture - and it's already been done.

The same as the very first person who painted 'Live, Laugh, Love' on their living room wall was original and quite sweet with their sentiment - but when every gift shop and seaside 'walkaround store' in the English-speaking world has them stacked up on pallets to the ceiling, the sentiment is somewhat diluted, shall we say?!

Not so great if you have to spend a 'romantic' hour or two shuffling through thousands of others before you find yours, though - espscially if your eyesight is no longer what it was and/or you've developed aches and pains over the years that make it difficult to bend now!

😂

Not if they've also chucked the key in the river.

Is buying a set of strong bolt cutters at the same time as the padlock an equivalent to a 'practical-but-unromantic' pre-nup in this situation?!

It's a discussion forum! Lighten up! Folks will have different opinions! 😉

@BeatrizBoniface Lighten up, is it really a big deal in the grand scheme of things?

Just because there's littering and fly tipping doesn't mean to say that this effort, cost and waste is acceptable.
Council tax shouldn't be wasted on dealing with these padlocks.

Personally I love things like this. I find it quite touching and interesting to read the inscriptions and think of all the people who left them.

Can appreciate the need to remove them every so often due to the volume and the weight etc. But I can't get worked up over it, our council tax goes on much worse things like littering and fly tipping.

Most love locks I have seen attached to bridges etc, the names/initials and dates are written with a Sharpie or similar. Weather - rain or sun, will eventually rub the writing off.

Agree. It's wasteful and ugly.

I can agree to disagree. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you are right.

I love glitter and sparkle so when I saw all the different colours luminous in the sunlight on the metal cables, it would brighten up my day. Same as seeing light reflected in dew on a spider's web on wooden ones.

I quite like the manmade frames designed to hold them instead. I have seen a balloon, a tree and a heart. I like decorations though. My favourite time of year is the Easter dressings of wells in Germany.

But I do agree the sheer amount of padlocks can change what can look like an art piece into dreck.

The angel of the north has trees nearby where the bereaved have left ashes, notes, hearts etc
It has happened there unfortunately. That one memorial has become a hundred and now what is in the branches is a mixture of things that can look tacky. It still made me catch my breath though.

I agree.
I live in Austria and it's becoming an absolute nuisance in some areas. Salzburg is having problems with locks on one of the footbridges. The extra weight is causing issues because of so many locks on there. The city is constantly having to remove the locks which costs time and money and then within a matter of weeks the bridge is completely covered in locks again.
They look awful and tacky after they've been there for a while. It's not like they look attractive or it creates some kind of living work of art. It just looks shit.

"Herzensangelegenheit | Echt Nürnberg Locations" https://echt-nuernberg.de/location/herzensangelegenheit

Sorry forgot to show the air balloon.
Sadly, same as metal trees and heart sculptures where you can hang the locks, less is more.
They all look gorgeous until they're heaving.

They look beautiful but they do weigh the bridges down so eventually do get removed. Here's an example of one looking lovely before it became untenable.
https://www.alamy.com/love-locks-at-a-footbridge-pegnitz-river-old-town-nuremberg-franconia-bavaria-germany-europe-image229241061.html
More were added until it was heaving eventually
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-nuremberg-germany-14th-jan-2015-countless-padlocks-hang-on-a-footbridge-77647844.html
This was when love padlocks became a big thing all over Germany.
Nuremberg then took quite a clever stance and created a small air balloon metal frame at the end of the bridge near the cinema, which is now where all the locks are displayed.

Don't they? I can't think of anyone I know who wouldn't be botheredby that.

Weird statement.

In the city where I live (not UK) there’s a bridge with one old rusty lock on and every time I see it I think it is indicative of how little the locals love and/or how rule following they are (secretly I think it’s both - Germans!)

Well so am I and DH. We don’t subscribe to it either.

I'm an older person, so is my husband. We've had a significant anniversary. It didn't involve this nonsense, and was still romantic!