MILLENNIUM POINT - OR POINTLESS?

25-09-2006

Birmingham's showpiece Millennium Point project opened five years ago this week. Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg will be assessing on TV tonight whether it was money well spent. Here's his personal view.

The first question you have to ask yourself as a reporter going around Millennium Point is - would I come here, as a punter, with my family?

And the answer is yes. Think Tank, the museum cum futuristic science lab at the heart of this venture offers a couple of hours of absorbing entertainment, both for parents and for kids.

The old ‘uns who remember with fondness the more conventional Science Museum in Newhall Street will be relieved to find that many of those exhibits have been relocated here - and are afforded generous, if slightly gloomy floorspace.

There are engines, trams, an award-winning Spitfire - all offering a proper glimpse of Brum's industrial heritage.

As for the youngsters, there are loads of whizzing displays, flashing screens, and buttons to touch to stave off boredom.

They can, if they are so minded, watch a movie of a hip replacement operation, or just gawp at the space suits.

Either way, science in this setting seems like fun, and that can't be a bad thing.

So why is Thinktank and/or Millennium Point routinely described as a white elephant?

The visitor numbers don't help. When the Science Museum closed in 1992, it was attracting more than 315,000 visitors; Thinktank, despite promising to at least equal that, only pulls in around 200,000.

Compare and contrast with the Eden Project conceived at around the same time, which draws millions. They certainly caught the zeitgeist, garnering national and international headlines by becoming a focal point for environmentalism when journalists were looking for positive stories in that area.

But there was more to it than lucky timing; the folk behind the Eden scheme had a bold vision, designing their centre with those enormous botanical domes and the largest greenhouse in the world.

It was brave, futuristic and photogenic.

And what have we got? And ugly rectangular box that looks like it's auditioning for a job as a B&Q warehouse.

Once you get inside the ThinkTank building it's actually quite impressive in a “wow, look how high the ceiling is” kinda way; but it's getting people through the door in the first place that's the problem.

The doubling up of names doesn't help; listen to those in the know, and they'll patiently explain that Thinktank is the museum while Millennium Point refers tothe overall geographical location which is home to UCE, the IMAX cinema and so on. Yet in most people's minds, that distinction isn't clear and the whole scheme suffers an identity crisis - most Brummies don't know what this place isfor, or indeed, where it is.

When I spent 20 minutes in Victoria Square asking passers-by for directions, I was sent a dozen different ways.

There's undoubtedly a psychological element to this; the whole area lies outside Birmingham's inner ring road, and though the ring road has now gone it still defines what most locals think of a“town”. Millennium Point lies beyond that in the fuzzy unknown realm of the innner city.

Chief executive Nick Winterbotham sticks doggedly to the line that Thinktank is just a seven minute walk from New Street Station. Maybe he's borrowed some futuristic jet-heeled boots from one of his own a display cabinets, but it took me almost a quarter of an hour to do the same journey.

Maybe the whole thing will gain a new lease of life when Eastside is finally developed - whenever that might be. Millennium Point was conceived as a catalyst for regeneration for its surrounding district. No problem with that, but five years on we're still waiting for the whole thing to take off, and there's still no sign of the bustling restaurants and shops that were meant to complement the scheme.

At £114 million, this was the most expensive millennium project outside London, and since opening in 2001 it's soaked up more than £7 million in grants and £17 million in loans.

Relatively high admission prices mean that even families who want tovisit think twice about going, so there's no sign that it will stop being a drain on the public purse anytime soon.

Which is a pity. Thinktank is decent enough, but it just lacks the killer content, that little bit of pzazz that turns a good attraction into a great one. At the same time it's certainly nota white elephant- althoughcome to think of it, if they had one of those on the site, now that really would pull in the punters.

You can watch Adrian's film about Millennium Point on BBC1's Inside Out tonight at 7.30