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Drayton Manor Park

The inquest will come first, then the court case (even if the inquest rules misadventure, they'll still be a court case, even if just a civil one, there enough internet outrage and self delusion over responsibility that you can guarantee it'll happen, even if doomed to fail), however you cannot do anything in court until after the inquest has been closed.

Ciaran said:
Well, it was her fault.
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Yeah, be careful where you say that in public though, you may end up being lynched, or worse still, accused of victim blaming, definitely don't say that in the local rags comments section, you'll defo be hunted down and shamed for that.
 
Pathetic how much time it's taking really though isn't it, just keeps getting pushed back and back, even the family of Evha said this and that was back in May
 
Nothing new I'm afraid, public services are so under-staffed it's a wonder they can get anything done, my sister-in-law died in early April and we still don't have a death certificate or CoD.
 
The parents and family are pushing for new rules on Rapids and other rides which you can more about freely. Merlin have already put some of theses principles In place with no kids can ride without a over 18 person on the same boat and doors added on the exit paths.
 
Will be court first (if legal proceedings are being bought) then inquest after so as not to prejudice the trail. That's what's happening with the Shoreham Air Disaster.
 
Alsty said:
Will be court first (if legal proceedings are being bought) then inquest after so as not to prejudice the trail. That's what's happening with the Shoreham Air Disaster.
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You are right, I dunno why I thought it was the other way, maybe I was getting muddled between inquest and enquiry. That's obviously why the inquest keeps being delayed then, waiting for a prosecution to be started, I got the feeling that Vaz(?) wants people prosecuted regardless of the outcome of any investigation.
 
I know there have been quite a few comments basically saying that Drayton Manor haven't built any major coasters for a while because they've been spending all their money on expanding Thomas Land. According to a post on the official Drayton Manor blog, all the expansions since Thomas Land opened have cost a total of £2.5 million. That sounds about right to me. Things like a Zamperla Samba Balloons wouldn't cost a vast amount.
https://www.draytonmanor.co.uk/blog/dmp-opens-2018-season-honours-decade-europes-thomas-land/

I think this helps to show that the reason we haven't seen any major rides for a while isn't because they're spending loads of money on Thomas Land. They're simply strapped for cash. Thomas Land rides are what they can afford. That's not to say that they don't also get a better return on investment from Thomas Land or that the child market isn't important to them. It's also not to say that they don't want to add a major ride. Somewhere along the way they seem to have got stuck in a financial rut. The rapids accident won't make it any easier for them, but I really hope they do claw their way out of this and find a way to get things back on track.
 
I haven't got a major issue with that to be fair. For all the faults Drayton has, (and I have called them out on many) they provide one of the best days out in the country for their target market.

Anyone with a child will understand. You can try and understand any child centric place as an adult, based on opinions of what you think children want. But unless you visit said place with a child you really can't get a good picture. As a father to a 4 year old myself and someone who has had season tickets on and off for the Manor since the late 90's. You really don't experience the place (or any place) that is targeted towards children unless you go with one. Even then, it's only a slight impression.
 
Pretty poor really considering their car park is literally a muddy field and the place is difficult to access via public transport.

Not surprised by this though, most other parks do it so they'll see it as an opportunity no doubt.
 
Are there actually any decent offers for single adult admission to this gaff? Online booking via the website is not cheap enough, and if you do Tesco Clubcard you can only exchange the vouchers on the day at the park, so you don't get the discounted online rate, which defeats the purpose of the Tesco offer. No way I'm paying £25 + or whatever it is for this monstrosity of a place! Ok, Maelstrom is pretty good but that's about it, I think.
 
I don't think Drayton Manor will be particularly happy about putting the parking charge back in, just as I doubt they were clapping their hands as they got rid of the cable car and replaced the big wheel with an upcharge attraction. For the Bryan family I think they are genuinely proud of their heritage and take pride in what they do. Unfortunately, I suspect that visitor number are down and realistically they're likely to be hit by a big fine for the rapids accident. Now, I know you could make the argument that charging to park won't help to bring back the visitors, but in this case I think the move really has been done out of desperation.
 
Well said, unfortunately people convienantly forget that Drayton are a medium business still ran by a family that does not have the capital to compete with the bullying larger corporation dominating the market known as Merlin. They pulled an ingenious move with Thomas Land, and this helped them push forward with their Hotel and restaurant.
I'm not particularly keen on 'hidden costs', and Merlin style fees attached to days out, but given the parks current financial situation, it really is something that is unfortunately needed if they are going to be able to afford what they are planning to do. As has been said, they are in murky waters as things are. That being said, I concede that Drayton's operations this year have indeed been nothing short of dreadful. And I'm saying that despite having a lot of respect for the place. Pirate Adventure, Excalibur/Castle of Dreams and Splash Canyon SBNO is also not acceptable, and these must be reopened or replaced within the next 5 or so years. It's more important than a new coaster.
zerogravity said:
Will this be for generating funds for a new investment perhaps?
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To put it simply, yes. Myself and a couple of other guys have recently been looking in to parks future strategy including Drayton's mid term plans submitted to Lichfield council not too far back. It involves completely removing greenfield regulations around the area that the park owns, and also involves numerous CAPEX heavy investments: Building a new hotel, building a new entertainments building, having a multistorey car park, going forward with the new Penguin enclosure, another Thomas Land expansion, and a major expansion on the theme park (a new coaster built for an unknown date on the Buffalo and Vertigo site).
We suspect that these new barriers are the first stage of turning the car park in to a multistorey car park that will happen later down the line. It will hopefully free up a lot of space :)
 
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