£30 million for Turner Centre

[Vince, Charlie and Sam]

"The costs of building the Turner Centre, Kent's flagship arts centre, have spiralled to nearly £30 million- about four times the original cost, it has emerged.

It has also been revealed that the centre, being build alongside the stone pier at Margate, is now expected to open in the first six months of 2008, four years later than first forecast.

And in a further blow, KCC said that it was still about £9.8 million short of what it needed to build the distinctive gallery, which will be partly bedded in the sea"


Source- Isle of Thanet Extra, 28/10/2005



By my calculations, assuming interest rates of 4% and an admission charge of £10, the Turner Centre will need 300 vistors PER DAY just to cover interest charges, before it can even think about covering operating costs. It is madness that we have a site like Dreamland Park, capable of pulling in visitors in the hundreds of thousands every year, and that we are fighting to save that, while a fortune is being thrown away to build the Turner Centre which will remain forever a liability to Kent taxpayers.

[Zoidstar]

Total wast of money it will not draw nearly as many people to Margate as a theme park would, those that do come will drive and will not visit any other parts of the town.

I think it will be more than £10 to get in, they will need to recoup the money somehow, incleased council tax for kent and an even bigger increase for margate.

kill off the dead duck now before any more money is wasted on it, or if really must go ahead destroying the seascpae re-locate it to anther location the main costs is because the people in charge want it in the sea,

What about a stub pier on the site of the old pier. cant rember if it still there what happened to it?

[vince69619]

"It is madness that we have a site like Dreamland Park, capable of pulling in visitors in the hundreds of thousands every year, and that we are fighting to save that, while a fortune is being thrown away to build the Turner Centre which will remain forever a liability to Kent taxpayers.

Especially when all Dreamland needs is for the council to stand up and refuse planning permission for anything other than an amusement park. Cost to taxpayers zero, benefit to Margate huge.

Vince.

[Bob]

"The costs of building the Turner Centre, Kent's flagship arts centre, have spiralled to nearly £30 million- about four times the original cost, it has emerged.

It has also been revealed that the centre, being build alongside the stone pier at Margate, is now expected to open in the first six months of 2008, four years later than first forecast.

And in a further blow, KCC said that it was still about £9.8 million short of what it needed to build the distinctive gallery, which will be partly bedded in the sea"


Source- Isle of Thanet Extra, 28/10/2005



By my calculations, assuming interest rates of 4% and an admission charge of £10, the Turner Centre will need 300 vistors PER DAY just to cover interest charges, before it can even think about covering operating costs. It is madness that we have a site like Dreamland Park, capable of pulling in visitors in the hundreds of thousands every year, and that we are fighting to save that, while a fortune is being thrown away to build the Turner Centre which will remain forever a liability to Kent taxpayers.

Its about par for the course. Arts Centres are the latest In thing with Councils. Every Town it now seems needs an Arts centre which the claim there is a heavy demand for. As usual with council run projects they go 3 to 5 times over Budget and in spite of the huge subsidies they get they cannot even cover their operating costs every single one runs at a huge loss.

This gravy train must come to an end soon. They are reaching the limit that people are prepared to pay for Council Tax. They cannot kep putting it up at 3 times the rate of inflation. Eventually Local Councils are going to face massive cutbacks. They are wasting far to much money