At the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum, we have a Wessex Mk2?. We need the components for the roof panel and the pilots central console. The trouble is we don’t have much cash, reason being, the original land owner sold out to a big consortium, who immediately put our ground rent up from £700 per annum, to £3,000 per annum. They also said we could purchase the land for £120,000 or, with extra land for extension at £400,000. How does one get in touch with Sir Richard Branson, he, being aviation minded might? help!!!
Ken
By: Johnny Kavanagh - 27th May 2009 at 22:59
Chaps – I know what you are saying, but commercial rental and purchase prices round here have gone through the roof, credit crunch or not. It does seem steep to us as well, but we don’t own it and those who do can, and have, named their price. We have listed the tower and have two registered memorials on the site so it is of little use to anyone else, but we remain on good terms with the landlord and are well on our way to purchase.
As for Wessex parts, I’m sure we will have checked at Doncaster, but I’ll get our people to speak to their people….
JK
By: wessex boy - 27th May 2009 at 15:55
Weren’t Doncaster Museum putting various Wessex HC2 parts on eBay a while back? Might be worth contacting them to see if they have any more stashed
By: TwinOtter23 - 27th May 2009 at 12:50
Sadly the land purchase issue can be based on several factors, not least length of term remaining on the museum lease, plans for the area etc
As a tenant you do have some rights on rents and I presume that the museum has checked out about ‘unfair rent’ increases with their local Business Link
Also very few organisations are totally immune from such issues! 😮
Good luck with the search for parts!
By: David Burke - 27th May 2009 at 12:01
The price being quoted for the land purchase does seem excessive -whilst the area around the museum in semi industrial I cannot see that the prices being quoted for the land are entirely reasonabole
By: Johnny Kavanagh - 27th May 2009 at 01:17
Hi folks
What Ken says is largely correct, but the numbers involved in the plight of our museum are much worse…..
The rent went up from @£700 p.a. to £6000 p.a. – not an unreasonable amount if viewed as a commercial rate for the building and land we occupy, but a tad shocking when we only charge £4 per head at the gate. However, the new landlords (after much sabre rattling from friendly MPs) have agreed to sell the site to us, something the previous owners would not do for the thirty years we have been on site. The purchase price, including VAT, is around £150000, with an option to buy the field next door for £200000 plus VAT. If we do not purchase by May 2010, the rent goes up again, as it will every May.
On the plus side, we have almost raised enough for a deposit to buy the site (hooray!), and are in the process of fundraising for the last few thousand we need. So all is not lost!
As Ken says, this leaves us with little cash to spend on rebuilds for the next year or so, so if you can help him out with some Wessex info and parts, we’d be mighty grateful!
JK
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May 26, 2009 at 8:41 pm