Who says seaside funparks are not viable

[cliffc]

Hi all

I was just having a look in some of the other forums on this wonderful site and stumbled on this post by Gary from St Helens, about an fun park close to me In South Sheilds, this park has some fixed rides which are supplimented by some traveling rides, having said this the local council also support the resort with yearly events, such as the Cookson Festival, and open air concerts in the summer, the park itself only opens easter to end september, the arcades are open year round, but its sucessful and as far as i know at this time there are no plans to close this attraction, so who says that sea side funparks cannot pay. Waterbridge, Goddon , & conservaiive members of the TDC take note, the TDC might also want to look at south tyneside summer events list as well to see how you can attract people to a town. The park is free to enter all rides are payed for with tokens which you can buy from machines or kisoks throughout the park, and the owners have promotions such as buy one get one free token nights, which is good for a night out in the summer if you have the weather, and is open from 10am to 10pm approx. This is a much smaller park than Dreamland but still manages to cram in many rides of all types to suit all ages, and keeps on going year after year, the sad thing is its the only amusement park left in the north east, we used to have parks in Whitly Bay, Redcar, & Seaton Carew thay have all long gone, this park is helped by the fact the local council give good supporting events right throuh the summer to atract visitors to South Sheilds and of course to the park. If this can happen here why ho why can it not happen at Dreamland and Margate.


And who can argue with the statments of gary below ( I hope you dont mind me placeing this in my post on this forum Gary).
Cliff C

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:42 pm Post subject: Ocean Beach, South Shields

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Family and I were at Ocean Beach yesterday (13/4/06) in the most north easternly part of England that I have travelled for some time.

For me Ocean Beach is a park that provides the perfect antidote to the safe, sterile, thrill seeking imagineering days that, for me, make up the majority of the park experiences today.

Get this..If Disney and Aventura are the cappuccino and lattes of the amusement world then Ocean Beach is the double espresso!

Disney, Adventura etc are good for you but every now and again, in my humble opinion, a short sharp injection of Ocean Beach is good for the enthusiast too!

For those of you out there old enough to remember the park thrills of the seventies and early eighties that came in the form of excitement, edge, butterflies in the stomach, a splash of seediness and a whole load of fun..well..Ocean Beach is a must.

I felt that I was in a mirror image of Southport circa 1981 with a dash of the 2000s thrown in..The park screamed into yer face "I dare you not to enjoy.."

I dared not.

It had everything I once loved as a kid delivered to you in a way I genuinely miss..and didn't realise how much I actually did miss until yesterday.

Everything was open....YOUR choice what to ride and when to ride it..Old rides sitting alongside new rides..a definite edge and scariness and hesitance walking onto the rides..My feelings as a young kid back then in in the parks of the late sixties and early seventies and my feelings yesterday as an aged forty something at Ocean Beach!!

A crazy Cottage, a slam door ghost train, a Tagada, a Mississippi Showboat funhouse, cheap tickets (that are called tokens), two helter skelters, a Waltzer with walkers..a brilliant Scrambler..a Miami..etc etc etc

Photos and TR somewhere soon.

These parks must not die!

Yours with a bottle of Newcastle Brown at my side.

Gary

P.S.
_________________

[Cheryl]

Bob said!

[cliffc]

Bob said!

HI Cheryl

Yes but Bob also said Disney was about to go bust, and we all know which orifice bob spouts from and its not round the front of his body.

Cliff C

[vince69619]

They are right...

It was Bob with his all seeing orifice!

Vince.

[Zoidstar]

Phillip Miller has anounced a £10million investment project in Adventure Isalnd with a new £3million Rollercoaster and a doubling of the size of Sealife adventure in Southend.

[stuart]

Phillip Miller has anounced a £10million investment project in Adventure Isalnd with a new £3million Rollercoaster and a doubling of the size of Sealife adventure in Southend.

doesn't it make you feel sad when you think some of that could have been coming to Margate

[ricardobugsy]

Southend are so lucky to have Phillip Miller.
He does so much for their community.

Read the full story here:
http://www.southend.gov.uk/news/default.asp?id=1845

[porterm]

Very impressive new there for Southend-on-Sea. It looks like Mr Miller is bringing back the "cutting edge" culture that Essex FM used to employ with their night-time music shows, until 2000 heralded a very sad ownership change. Perhaps, on that note he can recreate their lost ground when his community station launches next year.

It certainly looks like a rather exciting future for the Essex resort, unlike its Council misguided Kent couterpart. All very sad indeed. Maybe, just maybe, Thanet District Council might just see the error of their ways with this news release. But then again, I for one would not hold my breath, judging by their past visionary perceptions. Wake up TDC before it's just too late!

Martin