TOM’S THINKTANK JOBSWORTH CLASH

17-11-2008

West Bromwich MP Tom Watson has been telling a tale of woe after clashing with the jobsworths at Birmingham’s Thinktank science museum.

Tom, his wife and their two kids were taking advantage of their family membership (cost £65) to enjoy a day out yesterday afternoon.

Somewhere en route from the café and the gift shop – and laden down with Christmas presents – they mislaid the yellow disc needed to exit the car park.

They security guard despatched to deal them didn’t only demand they pay their £2.80 parking fee again – he wanted another £5.50 to replace the disc.

“That’s sharp practice,” Watson observed this morning.

“If there was a campaign of mass protest against parking charges at Thinktank I could understand it, but this was an honest mistake.

“When you’ve got a family spending around £100 on a day out this kind of thing can only be a deterrent to going again.

“For many working parents this would just be too much.”

The security guard demanded that Watson show his receipt to prove that he’d paid his parking fee, but as Watson says, “why would I print that out?

“I care about the environment so I don’t want to generate more paper than necessary, and of course I didn’t know I was going to lose the disc.”

Eventually Thinktank relented and waived the parking fee – but still insisted on the £5.50 they say it costs to replace the disc.

“I’m not impressed,” the MP said.

Thinktank’s press officer Carolin Durbin said she wasn’t aware of the incident, and would be investigating.

But she said: “I think the true cost of replacing a disc is more than £5.50.”

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