To be disgusted with Blackburn Arena Ice Rink

[andybat]

Went to collect DS from a skating party, and was told that in order to come in to collect him, I would have to pay £1.70!!!! I explained that I was just going to go into the cafe where they were eating, pick him up and walk back out, and was refused entry to do that unless I gave them £1.70. The irony was that the party girls parents had already paid £1.70 for me to go in at the beginning of the party, I had spent £5 on food and drinks in the cafe and was just taking DD outside because she was getting restless. They said that I could collect him from outside, but how would he have known to come out? Keeping children inside the arena is keeping them safe, expecting them to wait in the foyer is not as secure as it is straight onto a main road, yet parents are expected to pay for the priviledge of collecting their children.

Think of it as keeping your local economy going and put it down to experience.

YANBU that is dreadful!

YANBU, that is terrible!! I think you should write to them finally and complain, parents should get in free if they're not skating!

Did you pay the money in the end?

Formally not finally*

The party parents paid to get me in, but whilst having to come to sort it out missed the cake and happy birthday for his daughter.

So he missed the peak of his child's birthday party so you could save £1.70? Sorry but whilst I think the ice rink was being unreasonable asking you to pay, you were being unreasonable to lumber the party parents with the cost and missing an important part of the party.

Dear me, OP didn't do that intentionally.

She obviously asked for help, the Father came out, important bit of party missed.

Yes, OP, YANBU. Ridiculous

There is a note on the wall as you go into our Roller Rink that says words to the effect of 'if you leave you will be charged again to come back in'.

It's to stop people going into town for lunch/drinks etc. I personally think that they should issue all party guests and parents with a badge/sticker so they are easily identifiable and can be allowed back in without paying again.

Complain, if you don't get anywhere copy the local newspaper in? I do think this is very silly. You could overlook it, but what happens when the next innocent person gets caught?

Couldn't the parents have bought all the kids out to be collected in the foyer at the end?

I have to say I certainly wouldn't have got the father out to sort it, I would have paid it myself.

However YANBU in that it is a ridiculous policy

Yanbu but i wouldn't have paid it, i would have breezily said "oh no, Im with the party" and walked on through :o

Im from blackburn - outing myself a bit here...

My mum used to take me and my brother as kids, all the time, i've not been in years. Then me and my friends would go when we were older and get slush puppys from the cafe! aahh...

Is it still a shithole? It used to be, but thats blackburn for you!

From my memory, it is very near to a main road, but not directly leading onto it, theirs a grassy bit with a huge hedge and a good 2 meters of grass before the main road.

However that is horrendous, Easy way to scam money off people. How much is it now for skating out of interest? It used to be about £3.00 when u used to go!

Thanks BrianCox, obviously when you nip out you don't take money with you in case you have to pay your way back in! The children could have been brought out to foyer, but why not collect from cafe, so they can hand out party bags etc and ensure they are all collected safely from somewhere safe? Did complain but manager said "how do we know you were just going to collect? You could have used the facilities, like the toilet! Or spectating", however, the party ended at the same time as the rink closed! What would I have spectated, an empty rink? I suggested they stamp your hand, said they couldn't for dermatatlogical reasons.

That is rather disgraceful. YANBU.

YABU very unreasonable Blackburn ice rink have a very very clear no passout rule. YOU chose to ignore this then you like ALL other people have to pay the readmittance fee. There are posters ALL over box office stating this, including the entrance door. Do you not read?

Kate the ice rink in Blackburn is now sided by retail parks and the town centre has had a refurb. The old market area is due an upgrade as this now has a new home but aside from that it looks like an average town centre now with a beautiful Cathedral.

I think unfortunately you may have met a jobsworth which are everywhere you go. I think there is signage that says if you leave the building that you would have to go pay again to go back in however. I don't think a reasonable adult would let a child wander out into a foyer out of the exit onto a upwardly raised slop grass verge to the road that has a pavement or a child old enough to attend a ice skating party would decide to do so when the exit of the ice arena is to a curved pedestrian walkway to the carpark area.

I do think the OP should have been given some leeway but at the same time the signage is there and is maybe being a bit overly dramatic because they feel a bit frustrated.

Wasuup3000 i live in blackburn, and i drive past the ice rink everyday, i know what the centre looks like. I didn't mean blackburn, i meant what does the Ice Area look like as i haven't been actually inside it for about 5 years.

And i just meant, yes it is near a very busy main road, but it the pavement, dosnt directly lead onto the main road, but i think the 'Dermalogical reasons' excuse although it maybe genuine, it sounds ridiculous....

The ice rink looks like any other I have been to Kate and last time I went it was about £5.9O to skate. Party prices include a choice of places to eat including the nearby Pizza Hut and Frankie and Benny's. It was lovely to see staff taking wheelchair users out on the ice who really looked like they enjoyed themselves as well. You did seem to be saying that Blackburn is a shithole however.

I've had to delurk to say that I'm in Blackburn and the Ice Arena has always had this rule as long as I've been going. Just wait outside - there is a good section of pavement/grass etc before they get near the road.

Blackburn definitely isn't a shithole. It has its share of problems but it is a friendly place with some really beautiful spots.

The centre looks quite nice, i'll give you that, but everywhere else is a shit hole, full of poverty, drug & alcohol abuse. & couple of years ago their was an advertisement out saying people in blackburn are up high with the most obese towns in the country....

In my opinion, its a shithole. However i do live in a neighbouring town, which is a crime-ridden, rough/dangerous place to live.

My high school was eventually shut down because it was terrible, A pedophile worked their for many years, (he got arrested whilst i was in his lesson) i know many bars that sell drugs openly over the bar. At school we were enforced with the message we were never going to do anything with our lives because we lived round here, i can count on my fingers how many people went on to university, including myself. Its almost like everyones just given up trying.

You must move in different circles to me. I know plenty of people (myself included) who went to university. My school encouraged us to be the very best we could, and indeed it was that encouragement that made me go into teaching myself so that I could encourage others.

Blackburn has problems. No doubting that. However they really are not any worse than many towns. At least it is not Burnley :)

Im not trying to throw the 'age' card in, but i presume as your a teacher, your older than myself, and i think older people love it, like my parents for example,

but most younger people don't. In some ways its a difficult place to grow up. However their are some nice area's, good public and private schools, ect. But, from the ages of 15 - 22 for me, everyone just completely gave up trying. But recently my old schools been knocked down and rebuilt, its safer to go out at night - because of the used of police riot vans in the town centre.

Do you teach in blackburn? Is it too cheeky to ask where?

& i had to give birth at burnley & did some work training their years ago. Its, well.. its something!

I'm 31, so I don't think I'm too ancient. I teach in a little town just outside of Bolton, now that's a treat. I went to Witton Park High School myself, so I wasn't exactly mixing with the Westholme set.

We each have our views of the place, that's fine. Having lived in Essex for a while I just know that the grass is certainly not always greener.

Burnley has its good and bad areas as well. So does everywhere. Drugs are a problem in most areas. I wouldn't say it was any worse than Liverpool or Manchester in the evenings and at night. I do see some youths hanging about the shopping centre and sometimes bad behaviour by people who are old enough to know better which is attended to by the police and I do get approached occasionally by the odd obvious drugie who just wants me to" spare them a pound for a coffee" but I don't think thats any different to any other area.

Burnley's fine really - but it's almost mandatory to have a go if your a Blackburnian.

I love East Lancashire. It has plenty of faults, but it's part of me and that makes it special for me.

Indeed what has!