Disappointed visitors to Hoad monument

Bound to happen, the day after I write about the pictures of the opening not being up on the town council site 4 appear today. And today Ford Park receive a note from Colin Hodgson thanking us for our efforts in putting on a successful gala on monument opening day, so better late than never.

On the monument; working at Ford Park we've seen lots of people, who look like tourists coming through Ford Park on their way to visit the monument. However, we have also had a lot of disappointed visitors on the way back because the monument was closed. Since being open for a full week after the opening ceremony it is now only open on Sundays, and only when the flag is flying.
I know all of us locals understand this signal, the flag flying, but I'm sure that visitors don't know and are making the long climb up hoad to be faced with a locked door. I know that the town council have organised and trained about a dozen keepers but they all do the job as volunteers, and when I visited last Saturday there were three staff on duty, although I would think it could be carried out with two. What amazed me was that there was no charge to visit, not even a donations box. I think that we should charge a fee to visit and perhaps an extra fee if you want to climb to the lantern. How much I don't know, maybe £2 and three to go to the top. Judging on the numbers going up the monument this week I would have thought that we could cover a wage for the keepers.
I expect paying people to do this throws up all sorts of complications, but I think the committee which will manage the monument need to have a serious look at the possibilities.
One idea that we at Ford Park had was that our volunteers could be used to take parties up there when the regular keepers were unavailable.
One way or another we, the town council, have to have some clear sign-age around the access points to point out that the monument is closed, except when the flag is flying, as this is just not fair to those who choose to make the climb only to find a locked door at the end of their slog.
We now have an iconic and beautifully restored tourist attraction that we can be justly proud of, but opening it one day a week on a Sunday, is something that will have to be addressed.
If you've got any thoughts on this then I'ld be happy to hear them and I'll take them to the council for discussion.