"customers who only want a cup of tea"

But they don't want JUST a cup of tea - they can get that at a Costa for £4 - they want a cup of tea AT OLD WARDEN - to breathe the sacred fumes and look out on the airfield. I know the feeling - when in the vicinity I often manage to stop for a coffee at the 'Bushe Cafe (no extra charge) whereas I'd probably get as good a cup in more comfortable surroundings down the road in Hartley Witney - but no aeroplanes in sight.

The answer is to restrict access to the whole site for those who want to see it and charge extra for those who "just want a coffee" - but not the full price - maybe £1 extra a head?

Why not just put the prices up a bit in the cafe, control access properly, and avoid any acrimony? Lack of imagination maybe?

I'm with esa-aardvark. The corporate-speak on the .pdf alone is enough to send shivers down my spine. Excellent for commuting to London from Biggleswade (59 mins), to say nothing of the new east-west (Oxford-Cambridge line), which will pass just north of Biggleswade.
Very heavy emphasis on training (which I imagine was how they got the lottery grant), but how many youngsters are interested in that sort of thing nowadays? We keep hearing that they are shying away from anything that looks vaguely like engineering.
Call me an old cynic, and I'll be happy to be proved wrong, but we've seen it all before. Coventry, Hatfield, Panshanger, Woodford, Wellesbourne Mountford, and many more. I suspect it is the thin end of a rather large wedge.

One other issue that has some relevance, particularly for the demographic of Shuttleworths supporters, is that even if you pay the SVAS membership, or the £15 to get in, you can no longer park anywhere near the hangars, you are parked in a field well away from the strip.
Fine for the able bodied, but many of the less agile are finding the half mile walk to the cafe/resturant/museum difficult.

The big take from the Facebook discussions is that the changes are eroding the relaxed atmosphere that Old Warden exudes.
It's no longer an airstrip with a museum, it's an 'attraction' with all of the corporate trappings that brings.

It sounds like the new managment know all about writing 'Strategic Plans', but sod-all about aeroplanes and aeroplane people...

…..it’s all so sad that an iconic place like this is seemingly being driven into the ground. Surely there must be another motive, is it being lined up to be a “much needed” new housing estate?

There are a couple of recent less-than-complimentary reviews of Shuttleworth on Tripadvisor.

One reviewer reports that he was told the new £15 charge was a "Covid measure" (!) and, like many other would-be visitors on the day, he voted with his feet.

Another remarked that notwithstanding the new pricing regime, basics like keeping the toilets clean and unblocked appeared to be beyond the ability of the management.

Tellingly, neither review attracted a response from Shuttleworth, which says it all.

I have spoken, I hope, comprehensible English all my life, including having much writing accepted by publishers with little or no changes.

I haven't got a clue what this rubbish means. Was it written in Serbo-Croat and then put through Google translate ?

In response to Nige 321, I think I saw a golf type buggy being used to convey the less agile from the "new" carparking area to the hangar/cafe area when I visited last week. What I didn't see were the usual cycle clubs, bikers and classic cars which used to pile in for a bacon bap and a coffee. I always thought they were an attraction in and of themselves, especially on a Sunday morning..

I regularly call into Old Warden when I’m passing for a coffee or tea. I have paid the full fees to go around the hangars on several occasions. The place has a unique charm. Regretfully this new, rather stupid idea will put paid to that. I’m guessing that all the corporate bs has been written by someone with a degree in museum management studies or something similar who believes they know how to run a museum. These people crop up everywhere, causing damage with silly ideas that don’t work outside a room full of flip charts and PowerPoint presentations. After the, often irretrievable, damage has been done they move on to another organisation to cause mayhem. I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen to Old Warden.

LB...... You sum it up very well. !!

……seconded!

Perhaps the following is more apt?……”Before the, often irretrievable, damage has come to light, they move on to another organisation to cause mayhem.”

Is it the same "expert" formerly from Duxford who knocked Flying Legends on the head ?

Well, I have been intending to make a pilgramage one last time - looks like I'd better get on with it. My late father had doneated things to them as his father was RFC (SE.5A pilot) and when we were children in Cambridge, visited many times.

The consultant garbage that WHBM quotes is high grade rubbish and I would not be in the least surprised at a long term agenda as suggested above.

The visitor experience manager at Old Warden has only been in the job since March. Before that he had a similar role at the RAF Museum. Doesn't bode well.......

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-ponton-a8081969

That figures.
It had to be a new nut-job that was ex-IWM or RAFM, after seeing that gobblydegook twaddle in the Strategic Plan.

As said above, knows how to write a politically correct Strategic Plan but knows the square root of FA about Old Warden and the people that visit there.

As also mentioned, the cafe drop visitors by classic car and bike clubs etc on Sunday run outs will likely now stop.

Just the words "strategic" and "plan" squirt a shot of cold urine into my heart...

Big fan of OW. Had the sheer luck of a Spit pax flight from there.

long story.