Lapland New Forest website suffers 'unusual technical problems'
'Scam' Xmas attraction hit by 'bizarre machine fault'
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The website of Lapland New Forest - the winter wonderland described in less than flattering terms by enraged punters who'd stumped £25-£30 for an unforgettable Yule experience - went off air earlier today amid reports that the attraction has been shut down.
According to the BBC, Lapland New Forest is no more. Trading Standards has an ongoing investigation into the operation, branded a "scam" by angry parents, some of whom were so incensed by the alleged rip-off they physically attacked Santa's little helpers.
The website has now resurfaced, complete with fetching snaps which, punters allege, don't exactly reflect the hellish reality. It also has a rather strange notice, which reads:
We have been having severe and very unusual technical problems with our server computer since Monday 1st December ... not with the website itself, but the machine we lease to host the website. All effort has/is being made to identify and correct this issue, but it has left us completely unable to communicate directly to all our customers and the many interested people who may have wished to view the website and receive clear truthful information. This bizarre machine fault has also suspended all online ticket booking and we can only thank you for your understanding during this extremely difficult time and apologise to you for any concern this 'silent' situation may have created.
As well as the Trading Standards probe into 2,000 complaints regarding the Xmas extravaganza, the RSPCA is reportedly looking into "allegations of huskies, reindeer and donkeys being ill-treated" while 2,000 campaigners have taken their protest to Facebook and "hundreds of customers and disgruntled ex-staff members are planning a protest outside the site on Saturday". ®
COMMENTS
@ Sarah Bee
"Yeah, I'd be pretty mad if I'd wasted money and had crying children bewildered by the sight of Santa having a sneaky fag, but I wouldn't ram my buggy into some minimum-wage teenager's shin for it."
To be honest, I had pictured you more as the one laying out Santa with a right cross.
I've not got to see the wonders of this place yet. Any chance of one of El Reg's famous reconstructions?
Paris, because pictures of her lapland made the news as well
The Obvious Joke:-
Person 1) You know that Lapland, in Dorset?
Person 2) No I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
If you don't find that funny, you must be in denial - I'll throw you a lifejacket.
Come Back Mister Blobby!
Yay!! Let's have more of this, put all these crap outfits out of business!!!
As for the post about it had to be someone at the BBC who got ripped off at Lapland Bournemouth otherwise it wouldn't have merited national coverage. . . the cynicism's admirable but misplaced.
Back in the summer of '93 -- well, if there was a summer -- we went to CRINKLY BOTTOM! In. . . MORECAMBE!
The local council had teamed up with Noel Who He? Edmonds to open the UK's first Mr Blobby Theme Park.
Our 11-year-old was desperate to see his hero (Blobby, not Edwards) so we went.
And it was Godawful: like Berlin, during the Air Lift.
So we contacted t'national Press and the Daily Express ran a full-page about how Godawful it was -- this, incidentally, being the last time the Daily Express ever undertook any journalism of any kind -- and the "theme park" closed down two months later and Council heads rolled and the District Auditor got involved and local ratepayers revolted and, and. . .
IT WUZ GREAT!
More people should get more things closed.
Like Microsoft.
As for the "author" of the Lapland website text, it's an inarticulate moron trying to sound self-important and failing dismally.
Gordon Brown, then.
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