The prospect of a so called “British Disneyland’ (although the park had nothing to do with Disney) has vanished for good. This week, a British judge ordered the firm behind the London Resort to cease operations due to racking up over 100 million pound in debt and also after backlash from eco-campaigners.
The London Resort revealed plans to build a UK Theme Park on the Swanscombe peninsula near Dartford back in 2012. The company said the project would be around 3.5 Billion pounds and would create thousands of jobs in the local area. The project since faced a lot of backlash from local environmental protesters, in which the classic rare “jumping spider’ had spawned in on the land and so the project had to be held immediately.
The Theme Park was set to be home to 50 different rides and attractions with 8 rollercoasters all located within different themed areas. The park was set to be home to various large food and beverage sites, a 2000 seat theatre, a nightclub and shopping district. From various artist impressions, the park was set to be heavily themed and feature a HUGE castle and lava waterfalls.
The site hit many problems, when Natural England made a decision to designate the land as a site of Specific Scientific Interest before the company itself became 100 million pounds in debt.
This week, a judge has put the whole project to bed, after an application by Paramount who are owed 13.5 million pound by the company behind the London Resort. The Insolvency and Companies court judge found that the company had ceased trading and after looking at all available evidence it seems as though the company will never trade again.
The Theme Park was set to create 30,000 jobs with an estimated 12 million visitors at the attraction each year. The Theme Park itself was actually set to open this year!
Our Thoughts:
Of course, the news is very disappointing that the prospect of a new heavily themed, ground up, theme park project in the UK has been shelved completely. But, let’s face it, the project never really got its wheels in motion as it seemed to be set back after set back, with the company not really responding to the issues that arose. The theme park would’ve been an excellent place to visit for many many families, however this will never be the case.
On the brighter side, it is looking very promising that the UK will still receive a NEW Theme Park in the near future, as earlier in the year, Universal purchased a large piece of land in Bedford and have proposed to build a NEW Universal theme park right here in the UK! This is something certainly to look forward too, and with it being such a huge company like Universal, who have completed many Top tier theme parks around the world, this company know exactly what they are doing and how to overcome any obstacles which might step in their way!
Come on Universal! We believe you’ve got this one 🎢
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