WORCESTERSHIRE pupils performed a play on the "Our Town" theme in the Dome on Tuesday - the day its chairman Bob Ayling was forced to resign.

David Lock, Wyre Forest MP and Minister in the Lord Chancellor's Department, watched the Worcestershire school show.

He was impressed by the performance but not the crowds touring the Dome.

"It was very thin," he says.

Bromsgrove Tory MP Julie Kirkbride is less charitable.

"The whole thing is very unimpressive," she says while on a visit to the tourist attraction with the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

"Peter Mandelson was here at the concept and design stage and he should take the blame."

Herefordshire landowner Sir John Cotterell knows who he would bill for the Dome fiasco.

"When I was a local councillor I was frequently warned that I could be surcharged for taking irresponsible decisions," he said.

"Should not Messrs Blair, Heseltine, Mandelson and Lord Falconer be surcharged for their irresponsibility and incompetence over the Dome?"