Is George Mottershead turning in his grave?
I have just watched the relevant parts of 'The Planners' from last night on the i-Player (skipping the sections about Edinburgh and Tarporley). It was fairly superficial of course, but it did look at the situation in a balanced way. Simon Mann from the zoo was shown as a talking head explaining the developments, walking the site with a planning officer and then with an environmental expert (discussing protection measures for great crested newts).
The person who interested me was the leader of the protesters. He was shown looking out from his bedroom window (in Flag Lane North, I think). When he was interviewed he waved his hand towards the window and said that the plans would "change the view from all our windows". The view at which he was gesturing was just the tall hedge marking the zoo boundary on the other side of the road - which is not affected at all by the plans. He also described Islands as "basically a theme park ride" and said that he used to know George Mottershead and that he would be turning in his grave if he knew about the plans.
That got me thinking - I never met Mr Mottershead, although I did see him in his later years, driving around in the zoo in a yellow Ford Escort (if I remember correctly) - but what would he say about Islands?
I don't think he'd have any truck with the theme park ride comment: he started the waterbus rides around the zoo, and the Islands plans are essentially the same - just more animals and fancier boats.
In his day he was a bit of a showman: it is said that when he was taking visiting zoo directors around the zoo he would always escort them around the corner of the Tropical House (behind the modern hyacinthine macaw aviary) to the corner of the big chimp island where the moat is narrowest - so that his visitors would panic and think that the chimps had escaped
. I'm not sure how far he would have bought into the immersive exhibit concept, but he would have totally supported the idea of giving the animals spacious and relatively natural enclosures.
He would, I'm sure, have been amazed by the cost of the whole thing and he might have looked at ways of economising by reducing the lifetime of the buildings and by using some summer bedding instead of all that expensive permanent planting (if SMR is reading this, he'll be nodding at this point
).
I have no doubt that his final remark would be 'why do you think I bought all that land? Remember Chester Zoo is always building!'
Alan
I have just watched the relevant parts of 'The Planners' from last night on the i-Player (skipping the sections about Edinburgh and Tarporley). It was fairly superficial of course, but it did look at the situation in a balanced way. Simon Mann from the zoo was shown as a talking head explaining the developments, walking the site with a planning officer and then with an environmental expert (discussing protection measures for great crested newts).
The person who interested me was the leader of the protesters. He was shown looking out from his bedroom window (in Flag Lane North, I think). When he was interviewed he waved his hand towards the window and said that the plans would "change the view from all our windows". The view at which he was gesturing was just the tall hedge marking the zoo boundary on the other side of the road - which is not affected at all by the plans. He also described Islands as "basically a theme park ride" and said that he used to know George Mottershead and that he would be turning in his grave if he knew about the plans.
That got me thinking - I never met Mr Mottershead, although I did see him in his later years, driving around in the zoo in a yellow Ford Escort (if I remember correctly) - but what would he say about Islands?
I don't think he'd have any truck with the theme park ride comment: he started the waterbus rides around the zoo, and the Islands plans are essentially the same - just more animals and fancier boats.
In his day he was a bit of a showman: it is said that when he was taking visiting zoo directors around the zoo he would always escort them around the corner of the Tropical House (behind the modern hyacinthine macaw aviary) to the corner of the big chimp island where the moat is narrowest - so that his visitors would panic and think that the chimps had escaped
. I'm not sure how far he would have bought into the immersive exhibit concept, but he would have totally supported the idea of giving the animals spacious and relatively natural enclosures.He would, I'm sure, have been amazed by the cost of the whole thing and he might have looked at ways of economising by reducing the lifetime of the buildings and by using some summer bedding instead of all that expensive permanent planting (if SMR is reading this, he'll be nodding at this point
).I have no doubt that his final remark would be 'why do you think I bought all that land? Remember Chester Zoo is always building!'
Alan
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