My recollection of those distant dark days when the White Cliffs Experience was closed was that it was part of a tranche of assets being shut as the money had run out, including the Old Town Gaol, various bogs, etc.
The townsfolk were called to a crisis meeting at the Town Hall where a heated discussion took place. The three people on the platform taking the flak as I recall were Keith, the Treasurer, and the Labour leader who has since passed away. I remember thinking how utterly ineffectual the Treasurer came across as, gesturing towards a thick file of accounts and indicating that it was far too difficult for mere mortals to understand how the pile of money they had inherited had all disappeared and things had come to this sorry pass.
It is customary to blame councils for all ills so perhaps it is apposite to look at what this local has to say about Plymouth, to where Forties Street was disposed for a derisory pittance:
"Our "City Fathers" (loose term) saying goodbye to HMS Plymouth, public access, sorry; any access at all!!.. to Drakes Island, allowing the the Palace Theatre to decompose as an excuse to demolish it, the Plymouth Dome on the Hoe being closed down, saying please let me knock you down to the 1960s iconic Civic Centre, yes, that's when we had a proud Plymouth, the Mayflower Steps allowed to be falling down...what did the founding Pilgrim Fathers do for Plymouth anyway, ok, they just left and helped found one of the greatest countries ever, the United States...so?....is that near Exeter? not forgetting the Park Pharmacy driven from the city limits, & destroying any other possible heritage on sight, BUT now we have risen to the glorious crowning monstrous carbuncle of Plymuff-ness, "to haste with the contrived closure of Plymouth City Airport"!!!....because what's wrong with the train? Nothing, just the association of the word "hours" when used with journey times, and filth, litter, messy toilets, & no seats!!..no seats as where once trains had 11 carriages, now they have 5..maybe 2!"
http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/
