Yeah, the site has been a nightmare the last couple of years. It's treacherous indeed to walk around with all the cracked and broken paving.
I know why it's like that, Sefton and Urban Splash own the lease - not Dreamstorm who are running the fair. If they were given a decent length lease, they'd invest in cleaning the site up properly and making a real go of the park. However, it looks like the lease is just going to be sub-let to them on a year on year basis until the "recession lifts".
The Haunted Inn was part of a "joint" submission to try and save the Cyclone, and then the other rides too. Basically it's easier to get something listed if there are supporting "items" close by. Likewise, the supporting items can then also come under the listing of the main item.
So to get the Cyclone listed, the Haunted Cottage, River Caves, Fun House and Caterpillar attractions were used to back it up. You have a collection of historic items which work back each other up as a "whole".
Sadly, the DCMS didn't see it that way - trying to get anything 20th Century listed is pretty impossible anyway.
Ironically, the Haunted Inn wasn't removed because it's made of asbestos :roll:
Anyone interested in the listing application (which includes a potted history of the four classic rides now gone) can read it here:
http://www.coasterforce.com/furie/pleas ... isting.doc
Please note - this listing was not done in association with CoasterForce. I am simply using the CF server out of convenience
![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)
However, members of CoasterForce did assist in the listing application
![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)