MISSING RIDES
In the days and weeks before the handover of the site, unfortunately a number of our
rides were scrapped by the then owners of Dreamland, who would not allow us on site
to remove them. The Dreamland Trust was granted access to the Dreamland site by
Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company in June to undertake an inventory and
mark various component parts of the Historic Rides Collection owned by the
Dreamland Trust. This was the first time the Trust had been allowed on site or given
access to the collection since the CPO process began almost two years ago.
The Historic Rides Collection has been collated by the Dreamland Trust, over a
decade; many of the rides being rescued or donated by supporters of the Save
Dreamland Campaign. The Dreamland Trust worked with MTCRC to identify all the
parts of the rides; each one being spray painted with a distinctive pink identification
mark. Their removal and disposal via scrap merchants, or onward sale, is viewed as
theft. The police are aware of all the missing items and have visual evidence of the
property being removed from the site and are carrying out further surveillance and
investigations.
The removal of these items does not impact on our plans or delay the project, but it is
a completely pointless loss, especially where several of these rides are the last
surviving examples of their type.
The Historic Rides Collection also includes a suite of rides acquired and purchased by
The Dreamland Trust, which are currently with external heritage rides restorers where
some restoration work has already begun. Other historic collections include a series of
amusement park and fairground artefacts and paraphernalia held in secure, off-site
storage, and the Dreamland Archive soon to be available as an online learning
resource.
We are finalising the rides line-up for the 2015 opening, which will be supported by
guest rides and visiting attractions.
Nick Laister
Nick Laister (Chairman, The Dreamland Trust)
www.dreamlandmargate.com
www.savedreamland.co.uk
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