Alton Towers withdraws plans for wood coaster

They're making money hand over foot over there (or so it would seem) why not just buy out the people complaining? Anyone will shut up for the right price ... plus it'd be more land for possible future expansions. I don't see how the locals can seriously think that a park that has managed to preserve so much of its history and heritage already while establishing itself as a thrill park, would willing go and destroy that with a new ride. Why not just shut the park down, then see what the locals think when tourists stop coming to their town. I just hope that this thing gets built at some point, and one day I get over there to ride it.

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"As soon as you design something that's idiot-proof, the world will go and design a better idiot." ... Thank you EchoVictor!
--Brett

lol, i guess you have never met a english country family- some of them even refuse millions of dollars to keep their land

as well as that, most of the locals (or those who opposed the expansions), would love alton towers to move somewhere else, because, when i drove through the town, it was all architectural and stuff but there wasn't really a huge tourism business apart from the park itself.

The only solution i see to the problem is for the layout to be moved so it either doesn't cross the valley (mayve dips down into it), or to be moved else where altogether. Another thing which may occur (although it's highly unlikely and i don't think they can)... is for the straffordshire county officials to overule the council decision

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Colossus [1]
Nemesis: Inferno [6]

What a depressing summer: first the Holiday World incident, then TTD being broken for Coastermania, and now this news.

Well...with the "downs", there always come "ups".

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"It's not a Too-mah!" - Arnold after riding Batman the Ride

Sometimes this country really sucks!

I'm sure there are plenty of examples of this sort of thing happening in other big countries such as the US and Japan but why does the stupid locals have to go and complain when a major major coaster of record breaking proportions (at least in the UK) has the chance of being built in this country. I was really excited about this project especially after seeing the blue prints and reading the ride stats but now its gone..........

However, Alton Towers maintains it will build the widely anticipated woodie with a few modifications to keep all parties happy. They have returned to the drawing board and plan to announce a newly improved design soon.

COME ON!!!!!! COME ON!!!!!! COME ON!!!!!! COME ON!!!!!!

The Alton Beast lives on......

I know how it feels. Arrow was supposed to build their fishook here at the stratrosphere but it too was shut down by locals because of the noise(still mad at that).

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I hope they kill that iron yuppie. Thinks he's so big. The great homer simspon

I can't believe people are so surprised. It's obvious to me Alton submitted plans to show a purposely large ride knowing that it would be shot down. Thus, by making it smaller (and thus more of a ride they're actually wanting to build), it appears as though they're working with the public, and they have more of a chance of getting it passed.

It's a smart stragegy, actually. Alton knows it has trouble with the neighbors, so when they submit a plan, they make it *larger* than they plan on building because they *know* the first submission (no pun intended) will be shot down basically no matter what.

-Nate

Interesting theory, coasterdude318. I doubt if that could be proven in a court of law, however.

It seems that the actual size and stature is not what the locals have a problem with, rather the removal of trees and noise. No matter what size of a wooden Alton Towers draws up, there WILL be substantial tree removal, simply due to the nature of a wooden coaster's footprint. If the locals cling to that reasoning, then the size (height anyway) of the coaster will likely not matter. Also, unless a drastic design change happens, a woodie will always be noisy.

I wish Alton Towers good luck in their plans and I hope they can get approval somehow.

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SCREAM with me... in 2003!

Sure - but they know they're going to be shot down basically no matter what. So if they reduce the size of the ride (which will obviously result in less tree loss), it's going to look as though they're working with their neighbors when really it was probably planned for all along. Not that you'd ever have to prove it in court because it's certainly not illegal - it's smart business.

-Nate