Insurers say miniature village is a terror target
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Your support makes all the difference.The owners of a miniature village in Southport were forced to delay its annual spring opening after their insurers ruled that it was vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Rick and Jean Jones said that Royal & SunAlliance refused to provide cover for the Model Railway Village in Merseyside because of a "heightened threat of terrorism" in the wake of the 11 September attacks.
Mr Jones, 57, who has managed the site with his wife since 1996, said: "Anybody with any common sense can see that insurance premiums will rise from people falling over and claiming against the business. But terrorism in this village is zero unless it's a 1:18 scale terrorist."
"We were set to open on 12 April but were told just a few days before that the site was uninsurable because of the high risk factor."
He said Royal & SunAlliance declined to cover them despite being their insurer for several years.
"We got feedback from them that, since 11 September, tourist venues like the model village posed a high risk and as a result they were refusing our cover," he said.
The half hectare (1.5 acre) village, which has a network of tracks for model steam locomotives, was finally opened yesterday after the couple purchased a policy elsewhere.
"Our new broker told us that the Government has made plans so that nobody's insurance premiums need to go up," Mr Jones said.
"But we have had to turn many people away over the past week while the weather has been so beautiful, which has meant a loss of income."
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