Re: Alton Towers submits planning permission
Lofty said:
You do know that to do anything like this that you have to clear it with the HSE and Hygiene standards?!
But having your staff piss on or cause harm to guests in a scare maze doesn't have to go through the same rigmarole?
For context, on Facebook I called out a couple of members on here for exaggerating the events of Thorpe's Face it Alone scare mazes... "And whipped. And spanked. And pissed on. And covered in **** and dirt and spunk. Oh and I had to Jack someone off...." To which I said "Obviously you weren't actually harmed, nor were you covered in real body fluids, nor did you have to actually jack off a real dick (snip) There's no way it would be legal for various reasons." to which Lofty replied "It is legal. Says numerous solicitors involved in extreme attractions." Yeah, it's legal to simulate or faux those things. Clearly actually pissing on or hitting someone wouldn't make it through HSE, nor would actual sexual harassment, and I was commenting on the way in which you lot were wording stuff to exaggerate or make it out to be legitimately terrifying. Though I do believe there's a "where's the line? Is simulated rape still rape?" philosophical question to be asked here! But that's a discussion for another day... Anyway, back to the point...
Like I said in my previous message, Lofty, those standards are pretty minimal. HSE is, like everything else, a contradictory mess of tick boxing that doesn't make a lot of sense on a case by case basis. I mean, think about it. Washing glasses between uses, but not the restraints that people's disgusting faces touch all day? How much dribble would you guess coats the average OTSR, because I'd wager it's enough to produce a clone army. The methods used to clean up definite body fluid is all about antibacterialising it rather than actually cleaning it up properly. If you put those headsets in a UV cleaning machine coated in vom, the vom doesn't magically vanish, it just becomes "not a health hazard". It's still vom. It's still **** gross.
Take height restrictions at park as evidence that HSE is minimal and that Erol is right, its up to parks to make their own decisions. You'd think height restrictions were down to the manufacturer, wouldn't you? But go to any manufacturer site and you won't find them. I'm sure they must offer "recommendations", but it's up to parks to decide. That's why Rattlesnake at Chessington, for example, is 1.4M whilst they are 1.2M everywhere else. That's why there's an Enterprise at Cedar Point with a restriction of 54" (1.37M) whilst pretty much all of the others are .9m (35").