Just days after Alton Towers Blog reported that Alton Towers were being taken back to court over noise issues, Stephen and Suzanne Roper have announced that they have withdrawn their case.
The Sentinel reports…
A couple has withdrawn a private prosecution against Alton Towers over claims the park is too noisy.
Stephen and Suzanne Roper, who live in Farley next to the resort, were scheduled to meet with theme park officials at North Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court in Newcastle on Monday.
They claimed Alton Towers exceeded limits set out in a noise abatement order, enforced in October 2005 after the couple won a private prosecution against them.
But their solicitor, Richard Buxton, said today: “Stephen and Suzanne Roper confirm that their prosecution against Alton Towers for breach of the abatement order has been withdrawn.
“The reason for this is that Alton Towers has explained that the subsidiary company responsible for operating the park has changed as a result of a corporate reorganisation so it is no longer right to prosecute the company against whom the abatement order was made (Tussauds Theme Parks Limited).”
Mr Roper said: “We were only told this by Alton Towers a few weeks ago after we had done a lot of work on the case.
“As far as we and others are concerned the nuisance is as bad as ever. The case is not over and we are considering how to ensure that this theme park operates as the planners originally intended it should – without “aural intrusion” on the neighbourhood and without, as the courts have twice decided it was, creating a legal nuisance.”
Divisional director at Alton Towers, Russell Barnes said: “Of course We are pleased that Mr and Mrs Roper have agreed to withdraw their complaint. We have always sought to be a responsible and co-operative neighbour.
“We have made substantial changes to reduce our controllable noise sources, but there will always remain elements that we can not change, such as screaming; we are after all a theme park resort which encourages people of all ages to enjoy themselves. We always believed that this latest claim had no prospect of succeeding. It has been a very long, and no doubt very expensive, process for Mr and Mrs Roper with little or no benefit to anyone other than lawyers over the years.”
The Ropers’s anger has been focused on noise from the public address system, rides, firework displays and screaming thrill-seekers.
Theme park visitor Christopher McDonnell, a 28-year-old engineer, said: “It’s not even that noisy inside the park. And even in the queues the noise doesn’t seem to be over the legal limit. I can’t see how it can be too much of a disturbance at a house outside of the grounds.”
Am I reading this right?!
The Ropers have dropped their case because they didn’t realise that Merlin now own the park, despite the fact the takeover made the national press? If you had an on-going dispute with the park surely you’d take notice of any news relating to it?!
I wonder if that makes the Ropers the doziest people on the planet, or if Alton Towers have just utilised the most humongous loophole in the law?
In the on-going saga between Alton Towers Resort and the Roper family, Alton Towers are back in court over yet more noise complaints about the theme park. The resort had a noise abatement order placed upon them back in October 2005 but local residents Stephen and Suzanne Roper are taking further legal action against the park.
These recent complaints from the couple state that the park are breaching their order through public address systems, rides and screaming guests. However, many other local residents have said that they have not noticed any increase in noise levels from the resort.
The Sentinel reports…
Alton Towers is being taken to court again over complaints about noise.
Stephen and Suzanne Roper, who live in Farley next to the theme park, are taking legal action against the firm, claiming it has breached a noise abatement order. They say Alton Towers has exceeded limits which were set in October 2005 after the couple won a private prosecution against the theme park.
A court hearing on the issue will take place on Monday, September 15, at North Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court.
Farley resident Richard Goodall, aged 68, said: “The noise level still is a nuisance. It is hard to measure these sorts of things. You don’t really know what it is like unless you are actually subjected to it.”
The September 15 hearing will be the latest in an ongoing legal battle between the couple and the resort, which employs about 1,800 people.
In 2004, the couple mounted a private prosecution case against Tussaud’s Theme Parks, the resort’s parent company which is now part of the Merlin Entertainments Group, in a bid to cut noise levels.
They won the case and the theme park was hit with a £5,000 fine and a noise abatement order.
Tussaud’s appealed against the decision and succeeded in getting the fine reduced to £3,500.
Its permissible noise levels were also raised from 3.2 to 4 decibels.
The Ropers have lived in Farley since 1969, when Alton Towers was a country estate.
Their anger has been focused on noise from the public address system, rides, firework displays and screaming thrill-seekers.
Janet Gibson, who owns the Bulls Head Inn in Alton, was surprised to hear about the latest court proceedings.
She said: “I thought it was all sorted. Every case the Ropers win does have an effect on trade. It was a shame to see the fireworks stop. I haven’t noticed any increase in noise.”
Jane Pickles, the landlady at Ye Olde Star Inn in Cotton, said: “This sort of thing can affect trade. I used to live right next to Mr Roper and I never heard any noise.”
Stella Heritage, who lives in Alton, said: “I can see Mr Roper’s point, he lives right next to the theme park. However, it is a theme park, so it is difficult to know what to do.”
Alton Parish Council chairman, Tony Moult, said: “I have never received any complaints from residents about noise. Our main concern has always been the volume of traffic. But the Ropers must have incurred massive court costs over the years which suggests the noise does annoy them.”
An Alton Towers spokesman said: “We believe there is no basis for this prosecution. Alton Towers is and has been operating within the noise limits.
“Our lawyers have advised us that there are preliminary legal and technical issues which should be addressed before there is any trial.”
Mr and Mrs Roper said they would prefer not to comment until a decision is made.
I must say that I’m very disappointed that this issue has been raised yet again and I very much doubt Alton Towers have breached their noise level restriction. Afterall, there is nothing of significant noise been added to the resort since the abatement order was placed upon them.
On a lighter note, if this Alton Bypass happens to go ahead then lets hope that it happens to go right through The Roper’s house as these two are nothing but a pain to the park.
Alton Towers’ official website has received a small makeover in preparation for the upcoming Scarefest event! The only major changes to report are an updated park logo, a few spider’s webs here and there and the main resort picture has been spookified! It’s nothing too drastic but puts the message across I suppose. It would have been nice to see the park give the event its own official mini-site like they did with Mutiny Bay though. It could have gave Scarefet its own web presence which would have been ideal for marketing material.
There is a full dedicated page to the event though which features all the neccessary information such as opening hours and new attractions for the event! The website has confirmed that The Boiler House will be situated next to the Alton Towers Hotel and tickets for the attraction are £5 - yet a double ticket for both The Boiler House and Field of a 1000 Screams can be bought for £8.
Remember, Scarefest runs from 17th October until 2nd November - make sure you don’t miss it!
Same Difference were live in Mutiny Bay at Alton Towers Resort this past Friday and Saturday. The popular brother and sister duo, who shot to fame in The X Factor TV show, performed 3 songs throughout the day in front of a packed Courtyard Tavern. Shawn Sanbrooke was their to video the event and has uploaded it to YouTube.
Personally, I think it’s slightly cheesy and a bit like something you’d expect at Butlins, but then again you’d expect that of Same Difference and the public seem to like them which I guess that’s all that matters! But it does show that the days of fully-blown stage shows with major international artists are long gone following noise complaints.
What did you think of Same Difference? Please leave your comments below.
Continuing with the re-theme of all the monorail trains at Alton Towers Resort, the latest addition to the fleet has been given the green light and is now operating. What is the theme I hear you ask? Well the park have persisted with their rather random themes and have unveiled The Strawberry Train.
Visually I think it is very impressive and looks good enough to eat, even though I’m not particularly fond of strawberries, and literally looks quite juicy. The audio is reasonably good although a few people have said it sounds quite annoying which I would agree with to some extent but I’m sure the kids will love it!
Credit must be given to Merlin though as they have identified simple things need improving and the re-theme of the monorail trains is as good as any new addition to the park. My only concern is the mixed set of ideas. I’d rather have seen a full fleet of trains that were Alton Towers related throughout, or on the other hand, nature related throughout. Having a mixture of the two just doesn’t quite work in my opinion. People have said that quirky is fun but there comes a point when too much quirk becomes tacky and with rumours circulating that the next train is to be themed as a banana, well I guess my concerns do hold some ground.
What do you think of The Strawberry Train? Please leave your comments below.
Brother and sister duo Same Difference made it all the way to the final of X Factor 2007, winning over legions of fans with their energetic and thrilling live performances - and now the pair are appearing at Alton Towers today and tomorrow with a live performance in Mutiny Bay!
In early 2008 Sean and Sarah toured the country as part of the massive X Factor Live tour. The tour visited packed arenas all over the UK, with the duo recreating their best loved performances from the show, receiving enthusiastic reviews from fans and critics alike.
The pair have recently begun recording their debut album working with the cream of pop production including the legendary Pete Waterman.
If you happen to be at Alton Towers today or tomorrow make sure you see the show and leave your pictures, videos and comments below.
If you have visited Alton Towers Resort from July 1st onwards then one of your on-ride photos may have been used to create one of six images depicting a person by the art of mosaque.
The rides used were:
Air
Runaway Mine Train
Nemesis
Duel
Congo River Rapids
Corkskrew
Spinball Whizzer
Why not have a look and see for yourself? Perhaps you’re featured in one of them? Simply click your mouse over the image and all the individual on-ride photos will become visible for closer inspection. If you happen to find yourself then please leave us a comment!
The first look at the new Oblivion on-ride videos is now available following a video submission on the popular video sharing website, YouTube! The system, which launched on Monday, shows a lot of off-ride footage with some good shots of the ride with a good choice of background music to help build up the suspense given off by video produced by Picsolve.
The video has received a critical reception from park enthusiasts for reasons that I agree with. The actual quality of the on-ride recording is quite poor with the camera shaking quite a lot and thus resulting in loss of quality in the picture itself.
This has in turn raised questions over the £10 price tag, or £15 for 2, for a DVD that lasts less than 2 minutes and isn’t exactly recorded at a high standard.
Finally the quality of the production has obviously drawn comparisons with the other video alternative at the park, YourDay! A lot of people are in agreement that YourDay offer much better quality video footage and a better product overall. However I do think it is slightly unfair when you consider YourDay have mounted cameras on the ride’s structure whereas Picsolve have their cameras attached the trains and therefore camera shake was expected to be honest. They just need to work on erasing the problem of the video distorting because of this. Ideally of course we’d have a system capable of both on and off-ride footage. Having two rival systems each offering only one of the two seems rather silly.
Anyway, why not have a look for yourself and leave your comments?
The main Alton Towers entrance sign, which can be seen as you drive into the resort, has been standing there for many years now. This year it was changed to incorporate the new logo but it seems that this was only planned as a temporary measure.
A few months later a planning application was submitted for a new set of signage which would revamp the image of the resort. There were two signs that were shown in the application, one for the main visitor entrance and the other for the trade entrance. It appeared to continue with the golden pipe theme which has been incorporated into much of this year’s advertising already, including the official website.
Well that brand new entrance sign to Alton Towers Resort has been put into place and the LED information boards are now operating. Each individual sector of the resort is displayed alongside its current status to the public, with the theme park and water park both displaying the times that they are open.
However, the sign has had mixed reactions from park fans with many claiming that it fails to overwhelm them with excitement. I agree with them to an extent that perhaps a little more imagination could have been put into the sign to make it more dramatic and give a little more shape to it. At the moment it looks a little “flat” and that a strong gust of wind could blow it over any second. It would have been nice to see it literally bursting with magic by having something like stars coming off the sign but perhaps I’m just nit-picking, it’s only an entrance sign afterall.
