No Cash, No Fun?
Reporter James Johnson asks why is it so expensive for young people to have fun in Hereford?
Ticket prices from going to the cinema to bowling are ridiculously high in Herefordshire. Especially when young people are given low amounts of pocket money and they can't get a job because of school or college commitments. Even if young
people can take the strain of a job, they are lucky if they can find one. School holidays are a much looked forward to break for me, but they always seem rather boring because of the lack of stuff to do for young people. The stuff there is to do is too expensive anyway.
If that is not enough, transport in Hereford apart from being unbelievably unreliable, is also far too expensive as well. If I wanted to go to town, it would be more expensive than it’s worth to use a bus. I live a fair bit away from the city centre and it costs £1 for a one-way ticket, leaving me hardly any money to spend when I get to town! It's even worse for young peope who live in very rural parts of the county where transport is less available and it costs more to travel into town. This leaves young people just stuck at home with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs. Young people then get a bad name because we hang around in groups and supposedly cause trouble.
I am a major supporter of Manchester United and of course Hereford United, football in general is my favourite sport. Even football clubs have ridiculously high ticket prices despite sport being something that young people should be more involved in. Hereford United are only in League Two but charge prices worthy of the Championship! Surely it wouldn’t hurt them to put on family games during the school holidays or the odd home game, so children and parents can get in free?
The problem with Herefordh is that there is not that much to do anyway, if there was more chioce then some more expensive activities wouldn't seem so bad.
Take Hereford's Odeon Cinema. It has one screen and a poor quality display and sound compared to newer cinemas, the seats are also tiny. Yet, despite this, they charge £6.70 for over 15’s to see a film and under fifteens £4.70!
I spoke to a Manager at the Odeon Hereford about the ticket prices. He said “£6.70 is the higher end of the market, especially as it’s only one screen. But in fairness it’s only as expensive as bowling or going to the football.
"We do do special offers. If you have an NUS card you can buy a student ticket for £4.70. On a Saturday we also do a special deal where it’s £2.50 for kids and parents go in free, so it’s cheaper for families,” he added.
TGS Bowling is another high charger in Hereford for both it's bowling and it's newly opened mini golf course. One round costs £4.25 for over 14’s! I called TGS and interviewed their duty manager. She said that their activities (especially bowling) " are more for groups rather then individuals so sometimes is can seem expensive. If a large group goes bowling then it works out quite cheap." She also pointed out that for students there were special offers to make it cheaper and fairer for young people.
Hereford United is another bad offender on the prices front I think. Their cheapest tickets come in at £10 for under 16’s standing, their most expensive is a seat in the Merton stand and this is £13 for under 16’s for just one match! They have different prices for different areas of the ground too and it can be quite confusing. Unfortunately when I rang Hereford United to ask why their prices were so high, there was no-one available to comment…
I still think that activities in Hereford like bowling and especially the football could be made cheaper for young people to go to and it would give us more choice about how to spend our money and time.
Here's what some other young people in Herefordshire had to say:
Name: Henry
Age: 15
Lives: Hereford
What do you think of general ticket prices in Hereford? I think they are ridiculously over priced for people are age.
Do prices stop people from doing things? Yes. I wanted to go to the Cinema, I paid £1 for a bus ticket and when I got to the cinema prices had gone up there too. So I couldn’t see the movie!
Name: Kelly
Age: 14
Lives: Herefordshire
What do you think of general ticket prices in Hereford? I think they're too expensive and they charge fifteen year olds adult prices, which I don’t think is very fair.
Do prices stop people from doing things? Well we don’t go to the cinema because it’s too expensive.
Name: Holly
Age: 15
Lives: Hereford
Do prices stop people from doing things? Yes there is this mini-golf at TGS and it's way too expensive. I haven’t got enough money to go there.
What do you think of general ticket prices in Hereford? I think the bus prices are quite high.
Name: Nathan
Age: 15
Lives: Hereford
What is the most expensive thing you paid to see/do lately and was it worth the money? I went to the cinema to see a film and it was £6.70, it wasn’t really worth it.
What do you think of general ticket prices in Herefordshire? They are pretty expensive especially the cinema.
