Tuesday 2 June 2015

The Great Train Shed and a Small Outdoor Museum


Talking about the upcoming reopening of Dreamland it was rather aptly described as a  Small Outdoor Museum. Although I wish them well and hope it is a success I fear that after the opening hoo ha it will again slowly retreat back into a little used facility due mainly to the somewhat exorbitant admission fees. I have a friend who is planning to come with his girlfriend. Between them they have 6 children so just to get in will cost £ 107 plus the cost of getting there on the train plus the cost of food while there and possibly a souvenir or two therefore just for a day out they are looking at something like £200. I doubt very much if the average East Kent family would be prepared to spend that much on a day out at a Small Outdoor Museum. Needless to say my friend is having second thoughts. It is thought by those we must not contradict that while visiting the Dreamland 'attraction' folks will also take advantage of a visit to The Great Train Shed aka The Turner Centre. In my rather twisted view of the world I find it unlikely that people who want to visit a Dreamland type park would be very likely to want to visit an art gallery or indeed vice versa !
 With thanks to Andy McCulloch for the descriptions. 

Moving on, the debate about the pros and cons of Manston rumbles on. For the record I have always in the past and will continue in the future to support the airport, basically because  I would rather back the 147 local people who lost their jobs and the two dozen or so small businesses that relied on the airport not to mention the other businesses that had small factory units running and employing people their also TG Aviation. The simple fact is that successive operators have failed to invest in either proper marketing, modern facilities or staff development, the airport has been used as a tax loss and not been run in a business like manner. In my view backing peoples livings is a preferable position rather than backing the  people who moved down from London and immediately started a campaign to get it closed. The disquiet about the airport started then and they seem to want to blame the airport owners for the fact that there were planes flying overhead. I would suggest that they take that up with their solicitors who failed to advise them that they were buying a house under a flight path and not vent their spleens on local people who have lived quite happily side by side with the airport for many years.