Smalltown and Dullbridge residents have reacted with delight to the suggestion that they could be relieved of the burden of paying hand over fist for the White Elephant Enclosure.
Yesterday Blitz Cinema owner, Padraig Irishh donned a cape, put his underpants on over his tights and rode into Smalltown on a White Elephant declaring that he would be happy to take on running the WEE and was confident that he could make it a success.
The SomersetClive telephone lines were jammed with calls from delighted readers, with over 494 callers phoning in to tell us what a great start this news had made to their New Year. This blew the recent petition to keep the WEE in Council ownership, organised by the WEE’s Bellend cafe operator, out of the water as that only managed to attract 160 signatures in two days.
Mr Irishh is well known for having reversed the fortunes of three ailing cinemas, including Smalltown’s Blitz Cinema, which was near-derelict and facing closure when he took it over. The venue is now known as the premier local entertainment centre with more paying visitors in a day than the WEE can hope for in a month.
In 2010 Mr Irishh responded to Sadgebore District Council’s request for interested parties to submit proposals to take over the WEE, but his bid was rejected by Squire Teflon’s friends in high places and instead the Squire famously paid a pound from his own pocket to “save the WEE for the nation.“. The WEE, which was operating at a yearly £50,000 deficit when Smalltown and Dullbridge Town Council took it on, has now cost the nation over £1 million to keep it going, with the blame being firmly laid at the feet of the SaDTC WEE Mismanagement Committee who, over successive years have done little to assuage the suggestion that they have no idea how to run a bath, let alone a WEE.
However, many SomersetClive readers were quick to point out that if Mr Irishh is successful in his bid then one of the first things he will need to do is replace the uncomfortable seating. With reader Trinny Chaste telling our reporter “Whoever decided to put the new seats in must have wanted to close the place down. They spent all that money on refurbishment and it is far worse than it was before. I can only think it was done deliberately.”
Former WEE Mismanagemt Committee member Cllr. Fencesitter defended the seating saying “The Town Council received a grant of £170,000 to repaint the foyer and sort out the seats. If we had been able to secure a larger grant it would have been possible to replace the seating structure completely, but this couldn’t be done with such a meagre sum and it was only possible to replace the cushion covers.”
SomersetClive understands that there is a high possibility that SaDTC will pay Mr Irishh a pound to take the WEE off their hands.