Barnaby
... grass that becomes boggy in the winter and a mud splattered aircraft.... Might save you a bob or two!
Ah! you must be talking about that jewel in the crown, Barton, or should that read City Airport Manchester. Kirstey is correct, when the car parking ticket barriers [not pay 'n' display, but swinging one arm type] went up, the franchised clubhouse cafe is now mostly empty on weekdays, with little to no visitors by way of passing trade and they often pull the cafe's shutters down and go home around 4pm, claiming there are no customers. City Airport management keep asking the cafe staff to remain open, especially in the evenings, but where are the customers? Get rid of the barriers! Flying club members now patronise the nearby golf club, which is open all day, 'til late evening, with spacious free car parking and you do not even have to be a golfing member.
Barriers (pay for car parking) are a deterrent to many. During their first week of operation at Barton, a student turned up in his humvee for his helicopter lesson, saw the barrier, got on his mobile to his flying instructor ..... end of short story is he turned around and departed, for good. As an aside: the problem with the barriers at Barton is you then have to go to the Tower to pay and get an exit code ticket. By the time you walk to the Tower, form a queue when busy, hand your cash over and walk back to the car park, you could have wasted 30mins, maybe in the dark and pouring rain. The best one though was that the Tower reception at weekends is also staffed by the multi-tasking fire crew. All well and good, 'til the crash alarm goes off. Fine chaps as they are, they rush off, locking the reception. So if you want to pay and exchange your car parking ticket for an exit one, or for that matter pay for fuel and anything else, you have to wait until the emergency is over and they return. No good if you have just refuelled your helicopter with Jet A1, and are in a rush to leave. Just one of the problems when 'management' has lost the plot. Sounds like Shoreham is going the same way. Shame!
In the nearby town of Eccles car parking was always free in the town centre to encourage shopping. Some bright council employee recently decided that they would now have to pay at meters. The end result is that people now drive the extra miles to the out of town mega shopping complex, The Trafford Centre, where parking is free, and the shops in Eccles are wondering where their customers have gone, and if they will be able to pay the council rates!
As to 'Hospitals might do it soon if you are not careful... ' some already do, and its costing and arm and a leg (excuse the pun) if you are an Out Patient. You're spot on when you say ' If they dislike it so much... Don't fly into there'. As noted above, people vote with their feet. So trade falls still further down the black hole. Sorry for the geographical thread drift!