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2024: General Discussion

Times change, rules change and the public and people in general change.

I would argue that perhaps installing CCTV is slightly different to installing temporary lighting. I am aware there are cabling ways and emergency lighting but the rules could have changed to what they are allowed and are not allowed to do. Alot of that stuff was installed over 20 years ago, very plausible that they simply are not allowed to install anything else permanent into the building. Most certainly the rules around this would have changed in that time. Tieing the hands of the park so to speak.

The park are right. People don't play by the rules and they do what they want at times, endangering themselves and ruining it for others. This seemed to be a recurring theme when the Towers were open to the public.

I feel there is a desire to open them to the public freely, but for many reasons, some listed above, does not make it feasible in the world we live in, today, in 2024. Far more care has to be taken in everything that is done in this day and age.

I feel the guided tours are a pretty decent compromise, when you consider the cost of even food on the park, £10 is not much, not at all. You are getting decent value in that alone as you are getting a guided tour of both Towers and the Gardens. Minimum wage is above £10 per hour, but even anyone on the minimum wage of this country is essentially getting 2 hours worth of entertainment for the equivalent of less than 1 hours worth if work. That is not bad value. Yes I know it is ontop of the park ticket, but that should be okay once they get ride availability back upto scratch. If they included it as part of your park ticket, numbers could be unmanageable. So it makes sense to give this as a cheap, affordable, optional extra.

I still maintain this is pretty decent.
 
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The maze stuff is very temporary, with little to nothing bolted in I would imagine, but can be easily hidden behind themeing or is mounted on to the non-historical bits of the Towers.
 
Steve74 said:
Better to have the paid tour and no public access than have the ruins permanently shut to from the public.
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It’s an almost eternal truth, things could always be worse. I’m not sure that’s cause for celebration though.

It’s entirely possible for them to install CCTV. It’s entirely possible for them to install new doors. The Towers were open for years before Scarefest came about. Seemingly it’s only now an issue though?

The Resort should be seeking listed building consent if there are additional measures they want to put in place. It’s certainly possible to carry out such alterations, since Listing a building is not intended to prevent change. I’m guessing that Historic England would look reasonably favourably on such an application if it were in connection with reopening the building to visitors.
 
venny said:
The Resort should be seeking listed building consent if there are additional measures they want to put in place. It’s certainly possible to carry out such alterations, since Listing a building is not intended to prevent change. I’m guessing that Historic England would look reasonably favourably on such an application if it were in connection with reopening the building to visitors.
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There is nothing to say they aren’t looking into this?

The fact they are seemingly removing Scare mazes out of the Towers suggests something is happening behind the scenes, whether that is driven by the park or the heritage organisations and/or the council isn’t clear. But there could well be plans afoot for the longer term. Anything involving changes to a listed building is going to take its sweet time.
 
Who’s to say they aren’t? Well, their statement for one.

Given their penchant for spinning just about any glimmer of investment into massive positive news, one would expect they would have mentioned in their statement if they were investigating such an application.
 
Really enjoyed watching this unlisted behind the scenes video regarding Hex. Top work from Towers and what a presence Bianca is, a great person to be running the park and very personable and confident on camera.

Interesting that they were honest enough to say they planned to re-open in summer, and that it most likely will re-open in Autumn. I always expected it to re-open in time for October anyway tbh as a marketing ploy.


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6xwFMGIuuc&t=3s
 
venny said:
Who’s to say they aren’t? Well, their statement for one.

Given their penchant for spinning just about any glimmer of investment into massive positive news, one would expect they would have mentioned in their statement if they were investigating such an application.
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I disagree and agree with the comment above you. They are probably being really careful to confirm any future plans, unless concrete and will pass safety and planning criteria as well as fans just turn on them as we have seen previously. But I do feel they are making the towers more a priority where they can, removing scare mazes slowly and looking at ways to utilise.

There has been so many great changes this year and a season full of surprises, improvements and changes. I don’t see any other UK theme parks investing throughout the season in various ways like this, I do feel we need to have a little abit more faith on here.

I feel next season will be the one to watch with all the dark rides up and running, the sky ride, potentially 3 new flats rides, galactica re-theme, building on there successful events infrastructure, more focus on the towers and success of the climbs and tours. Everything is going in the right direction in my eyes!
 
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Tom said:
The CCTV argument is weak, they could employ security.
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It isn't because it would cost way more over time to employ security than it would to install a CCTV system.

We just had a 50 camera system installed at work, for the same cost you could employ 4 security guards for just approximately 6 months, we did look at it. It just simply isn't economical.

The CCTV system not only covers a much greater area than what 4 security guards can cover, it will also work for decades without much replacement hardware.
 
My point is they don't want to spend that extra money. They don't have to, so they aren't.

Suggesting the tours are the only way of keeping the Towers in tact and accessible, is somewhat questionable.
 
Tom said:
My point is they don't want to spend that extra money. They don't have to, so they aren't.

Suggesting the tours are the only way of keeping the Towers in tact and accessible, is somewhat questionable.
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But there is a HUGE difference is spending for CCTV vs security guards.

It's plausible that they simply don't have the budget to fund the amount of security guards that would be needed. But do have the budget for the much, much cheaper CCTV but are having their hands tied by Heritige England and whatever other government agencies.
 
Tom said:
They already employ security guards, they could also open them for 1-2 hours per day and only on select days.

It is clear this is about money, but it isn't acknowledged in the updates. Ultimately this so-called problem has appeared suddenly after many decades of open access.
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Would those security guards not be needed elsewhere though? Hence why they are employed right now. Who's gonna check the cameras and deal with issues on the park if those security guards are stuck in the ruins.

You will always need a few guards to check cameras and do other security related tasks. But companies tend to keep them to a minimum due to high costs. They find cheaper alternatives such as CCTV.

I agree, it clearly is about money, my arguments never even disputed that fact, they supported it. But hiring a load more security guards just for the ruins is not only uneconomical, it is extremely inefficient.
 
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Tom said:
Ultimately this so-called problem has appeared suddenly after many decades of open access.
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And ultimately, there's no indication that the problem has actually appeared at all.

There's no indication that security has suddenly become a problem in the ruins, not least because it has been years since they were last open to the public (essentially having closed due to the lockdown and never reopened), so there's been no chance for there to suddenly be an issue with guests running rampant.
 
Squiggs said:
And ultimately, there's no indication that the problem has actually appeared at all.

There's no indication that security has suddenly become a problem in the ruins, not least because it has been years since they were last open to the public (essentially having closed due to the lockdown and never reopened), so there's been no chance for there to suddenly be an issue with guests running rampant.
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People have been breaking into closed parts and damaging the Towers for as long back as I can remember, which is 2001 ish, likely to have happened before that too. It is just the park or authorities have quite rightly put their feet down and said enough is enough. The problem has existed for a LONG time.

The majority of clientel you get in a themepark are generally not the type to appreciate the history. Atleast when you go visit a castle, you go for the purpose of the castle and thus appreciate it as thats what you go there for. Most people don't do the same for Towers, they go for the rides, which is a totally different demographic. Which ends up in vandalism and damage that we have seen for decades from minorities within the public. We even see same damage and vandalism in ride queue lines to this day! That is where they CAN be seen.
 
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Merlin have an 800 year old castle in their portfolio, the Towers are positively infant in comparison. If they wanted to put CCTV and so on everywhere there will be enough experts hovering around Warwick Castle that they could easily draw on to work out how to do it.

I expect the £10 fee will be a drip feed to see how popular it is prior to maybe opening in full next year if the demand is there; no point sorting it all out if only a handful of people a day go for a look.
 
DistortAMG said:
People have been breaking into closed parts and damaging the Towers for as long back as I can remember, which is 2001 ish, likely to have happened before that too. It is just the park or authorities have quite rightly put their feet down and said enough is enough. The problem has existed for a LONG time.

The majority of clientel you get in a themepark are generally not the type to appreciate the history. Atleast when you go visit a castle, you go for the purpose of the castle and thus appreciate it as thats what you go there for. Most people don't do the same for Towers, they go for the rides, which is a totally different demographic. Which ends up in vandalism and damage that we have seen for decades from minorities within the public. We even see same damage and vandalism in ride queue lines to this day! That is where they CAN be seen.
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if it happened in the past, I could imagine it would defiantly happen nowadays, especially with tic toc, I recall the "lick" trend where people were encouraged to just steal stuff, I would imagine if it was open then people may be tempted to take something, I can fully understand why they would want to have it limited currently, I can imagine people getting into dangerous situations just for a tic toc or Instagram trend.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Meh. If people hurt themselves for online likes... let them.
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girl smile GIF
 
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