• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

2022: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
DistortAMG said:
It is not really like they have a choice. I am pretty sure that they are obligated under the law to ensure the maintenance and upkeep of most of the heritige things at Alton Towers.
Click to expand...
I think it’s only specific things either covered by listed status or named in planning applications. There is no general you have to maintain this law.
 
Dave said:
The gardens are listed so they do have to be maintained, can’t say to what extent that is enforced though.
Click to expand...
We've talked about this before. The guidance is not very helpful.

From Historic England:

"There is no statutory obligation upon the owner of a listed building to keep their property in a good state of repair, although it is usually in their interest to do so. However, local authorities can take action to secure the repair of a listed building when concerned about its continued conservation.

An urgent works notice is a direct way of securing repairs urgently necessary for the preservation of a building.

This is distinct from a repairs notice which is concerned with long-term conservation and is a pre-cursor to possible compulsory acquisition."

----------------------

... which I guess makes sense because if people/groups can get things listed against an owner's wish, forcing them to maintain it when it might not be economical to do so, feels a bit wrong.
 
Last edited:
It works both ways though. The reality with Alton Towers is that both the Towers and Gardens are maintained. Not least because they know they will struggle getting anything through for the theme park.
 
The gardens themselves, as against the solid landscape features, have been massively neglected over the years.
Most of the garden valley species shrubs and quality alpines have been lost in a mass of invasive weed plants...specifically Hypericum (St john's wort), ferns and bramble.
The fountain lakes and garden are a poor shadow of how they used to be, and the bottom half of the gardens is now completely fenced off.
Three quarters of the pathways have either been lost, fenced off or are so overgrown they are useless.
The gardens are maintained, but badly, with the minimum of staff and imagination.
The bottom of the gardens beyond the bottom fence, were once well landscaped, but are now completely neglected and barely accessible from the outside footpath.
At least they cleared the stepping stones!
 
I remember, the bank! Has proper cashier desks inside and you could go cash a cheque for withdraw cash. I think it was also used for foreign exchange.
 
Merlin’s 2021 accounts were released a couple of days ago. Link below for anyone wanting the full info.

Results, reports and presentations

The latest results, reports and presentations from Merlin Entertainments
www.merlinentertainments.biz www.merlinentertainments.biz

From a resort theme park perspective it seems a good year. Of course the comparison looks good versus 2020 since they were open for longer, but a profit in the RTP division of £87million was reported in 2021 versus a loss of £62million in 2020.

Going back to the 2019 numbers, the RTP division posted a £76million profit which in itself was an increase on £66million profit in 2018, so last years numbers were better than pre-pandemic.

It’s worth noting that Legoland Parks and Midways did not post figures better than pre-pandemic, they are still lower than they were.

It’s positive news for us theme park nerds that this division is doing well, hopefully we see continued uptick in entertainments and events and eventually some more capex projects.
 
Last edited:
AT86 said:
Merlin’s 2021 accounts were released a couple of days ago. Link below for anyone wanting the full info.

Results, reports and presentations

The latest results, reports and presentations from Merlin Entertainments
www.merlinentertainments.biz www.merlinentertainments.biz

From a resort theme park respective it seems a good year. Of course the comparison looks good versus 2020 since they were open for longer, but a profit in the RTP division of £87million was reported in 2021 versus a loss of £62million in 2020.

Going back to the 2019 numbers, the RTP division posted a £76million profit which in itself was an increase on £66million profit in 2018, so last years numbers were better than pre-pandemic.

It’s positive news for us theme park nerds that this division is doing well, hopefully we see continued uptick in entertainments and events and eventually some more capex projects.
Click to expand...
Does this mean we could get high quality attractions soon?
 
Interestingly, it would also appear that the division is back to pre-crash profit levels, as I seem to remember £87m profit being the exact figure reported for RTPs in 2014!

With that in mind, things do seem to have recovered, as the division was hitting lows of £40-50m profit in the mid 2010s directly following the Smiler crash, if I’m remembering correctly.
 
Unfortunately the value of those profits in real world terms are probably worth about 20% less due to inflation over the past year or so. Real inflation has got to be about 15-20% regardless of the crappy metrics 'they' use to officially measure it. They'll be paying a lot more for new rides etc now than they would have a few years ago. You know me though, I always look for the positives :p
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top