Cinema Woes
I see in our local paper that the cinema fiasco of the last 10 years is continuing as the Councillors now decide how to raise the subsidy for it. The clowns in the Lib Dem party seem to think that charging for the town-centre carparks is the fairest way of doing it. The thing is, the reason the whole saga has dragged on for so long is because the same Lib Dems don't want people to drive to the cinema and won't provide the car-parking demanded by the cinema companies.
By this logic, the users of the cinema will all walk, cycle, get the bus, or drive to Reading/Basingstoke where it's cheaper (or free) to park and contribute nothing to the subsidy. It will be those people needing to drive in to town for other reasons who end up paying the bulk of the subsidy, and the extra car parking charges could encourage yet more people from the nearby villages to start shopping elsewhere. Has anyone else noticed that the appeal of Newbury is so low that the 'prime retail outlet' in the refurbished Kennet Centre took 18 months to fill?
By this logic, the users of the cinema will all walk, cycle, get the bus, or drive to Reading/Basingstoke where it's cheaper (or free) to park and contribute nothing to the subsidy. It will be those people needing to drive in to town for other reasons who end up paying the bulk of the subsidy, and the extra car parking charges could encourage yet more people from the nearby villages to start shopping elsewhere. Has anyone else noticed that the appeal of Newbury is so low that the 'prime retail outlet' in the refurbished Kennet Centre took 18 months to fill?
Comments
But seeing as they did agree to it there are fairer ways of doing it, such as increasing cinema prices by a small amount or adding a little bit to the council tax. After all, after the extortionate raises to fund unnecessary brick pavements and the like not many people would notice...
1) I didn't ask to pay a cinema subsidy, but seeing as it's been agreed to, the money has got to come from somewhere.
2) If the money can't be found from the council coffers without jeopardising public services, a *small* amount on council tax will cover it easily. Chances are the "rich" would pay more than the "poor" and any idea of the cinema being for the preserve of the rich would go out of the window.
3) If you can't afford a couple of pounds on the council tax, how are you going to afford the extortionate car-parking charges which would result from the proposal to raise the subsidy from car-parking? Payable, of course every time you use the cinema. I suppose if you can afford to live in the town centre you could avoid the fees by walking - those who need to park in the town centre for other reasons can pay your share of the subsidy. There's the bus of course, but that too is extortionate. And we haven't even mentioned the cost of the actual cinema ticket yet...
See, a bad thing. Us better off (to be PC!!!!) should be the only ones allowed in the cinema. We don't want a load ofchavs cluttering the place up with their ghastly kids. And tax going up to cater for these scroungers! That's a big no-no!