Someone to watch out for

[gareth]

Posting this here for the benefit of anyone who might be approached by this individual or his company.

https://www.bbc.co.u...-wales-58023864

Edited July 30, 2021 by gareth

[richard]

That is a bizarre story - although when I read about the plans initially I was suprised that they seemed to think they could get the place open for only £500k so it always seemed dodgy

[Junior8]

It must be something to do with the initials KM - about 15 years ago a dreamer from Essex floated a group of companies and/or trading styles one of which KMW Seaways aka KMW Marine Services managed to bounce the local media and local authority into taking them seriously as a possible operator of the Portsmouth Le Havre ferry route. Some on here may have come across the finger behind it, one Kieran Woodbury, who was involved in a few fringe theatre activities including Kidz Films. Indeed what was happening in the OP was so similar I wondered if he'd reappeared. Edited August 2, 2021 by Junior8

[sunray]

It must be something to do with the initials KM - about 15 years ago a dreamer from Essex floated a group of companies and/or trading styles one of which KMW Seaways aka KMW Marine Services managed to bounce the local media and local authority into taking them seriously as a possible operator of the Portsmouth Le Havre ferry route. Some on here may have come across the finger behind it, one Kieran Woodbury, who was involved in a few fringe theatre activities including Kidz Films. Indeed what was happening in the OP was so similar I wondered if he'd reappeared.

Huh Another topic been re-kindled in the ol' gray matter, IIRC also the Sheerness and Ramsgate passenger ports.

[gareth]

That is a bizarre story - although when I read about the plans initially I was suprised that they seemed to think they could get the place open for only £500k so it always seemed dodgy

 

It is indeed an odd one. On the face of it, while £500k isn't a whole lot of money in real terms when it comes to a project like this, it would probably go a very long way to getting the building back to a point where it could function safely as a venue again. It probably wouldn't stretch to improving anything of any significance, and I would imagine it wouldn't make much of a dent in the work which would be needed to the area around the venue either - but it would go a long way towards getting the theatre open again.

 

A bit of internet research reveals that this character seems to live very much in a world of pure imagination (as the song goes!), and appears to be something of a serial offender when it comes to scamming people - he's been offering contracts of employment on productions which don't exist, selling tickets for shows which the supposed host venue has never heard of, and generally living his fantasy of being some sort of wunderkind theatre producer despite only recently being out of nappies.

 

On the positive side, it sounds as though the project to reopen Theatr Ardudwy in the near future is still ongoing - but with KMD Production very much out of the picture!