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Kent, England | The London Resort | Entertainment Complex

As I said on TowersStreet, it is certainly starting to look more promising now that we have public consultations formally announced (isn’t this basically planning permission?)!

Also, I just had an interesting thought; I was reading in Reuters the other day that the UK government is apparently devising a stimulus to boost the economy post-COVID, and one of the things heavily involved is big-scale infrastructure projects. It is worth noting that the project gained status as a Nationally Important Infrastructure Project in 2014, so could the government potentially rally for this to open or provide some sort of backing as a means to try and prop up the economy post-COVID?
 
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Matt N said:
As I said on TowersStreet, it is certainly starting to look more promising now that we have public consultations formally announced (isn’t this basically planning permission?)!

Also, I just had an interesting thought; I was reading in Reuters the other day that the UK government is apparently devising a stimulus to boost the economy post-COVID, and one of the things heavily involved is big-scale infrastructure projects. It is worth noting that the project gained status as a Nationally Important Infrastructure Project in 2014, so could the government potentially rally for this to open or provide some sort of backing as a means to try and prop up the economy post-COVID?
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Public consultation is only one of the many stages of what will be a long process of work running up to the submission of the application. That being said, it's the start of something and someone is putting money and time into organising it.

Some further information from the site:

"We are working with Dartford Borough Council, Gravesham Borough Council and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation to bring forward a comprehensive masterplan for the Entertainment Resort.

We intend to submit our DCO application later this year. We will be sharing our updated plans with the community through a further stage of public consultation prior to submitting our application. We are working hard to develop our proposals in more detail, including carrying out further transport and environmental studies in the local area.

Following submission, the Planning Inspectorate will seek views and carefully examine the application to advise the Government on whether or not it should go ahead."

Something to watch.
 
SilverArrow said:
Public consultation is only one of the many stages of what will be a long process of work running up to the submission of what will be a complex application. That being said, it's the start of something.

Some further information from the site:

"We are working with Dartford Borough Council, Gravesham Borough Council and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation to bring forward a comprehensive masterplan for the Entertainment Resort.

We intend to submit our DCO application later this year. We will be sharing our updated plans with the community through a further stage of public consultation prior to submitting our application. We are working hard to develop our proposals in more detail, including carrying out further transport and environmental studies in the local area.

Following submission, the Planning Inspectorate will seek views and carefully examine the application to advise the Government on whether or not it should go ahead."

Something to watch.
Click to expand...
Ah right; thanks for the clarification @SilverArrow! Regardless, it’s certainly something with a little more zest about it than the past few press releases have had!

I also had a thought. While I initially thought that COVID-19 reduced the project’s chances of viability substantially, I was thinking; could it potentially increase the chance instead? I know this might seem like a very bizarre thing to say, but I’ll explain why; a big resort may well be a good way to boost the British tourism industry, and it’s worth noting that the project isn’t due to open until 2024, by which point most forecasts predict the economy will have mostly recovered. If you think about it, a resort like this offers a number of economic benefits, some of which will be very much needed post-COVID, such as:
  • Many new jobs; this will help with unemployment levels in Britain, as well as replenishing hospitality jobs lost during COVID. Also, more jobs = more tax for the government to put into things like public services and necessary funds, meaning that the country as a whole gets richer and improves.
  • Boost to tourism; a huge resort like this one is being touted as being will attract international tourism to the UK, which the government will surely be wanting more of in order to prop up our tourism industry. If the park attracts international tourism, then these tourists may be more inclined to visit other British tourist attractions than they otherwise would have been, meaning that the government benefits through the economy increasing and them receiving more in taxes from tourist attractions. A park like this could definitely have much larger international appeal than any other park in the UK currently does, and I think that’s very much what they intend to do. Think of the benefits that the other mega park resorts around the world provide for their respective countries and local areas; the government will surely be wanting to harness that!
  • Benefits for the local area; as I already touched upon above, this will provide colossal benefits to the local area. As I said above, tourists to the park may well be inclined to see other bits of the local area while visiting, but there’s also the point to consider of; some people may find the on-site accommodation too pricey or just not meeting their needs in general, so local accommodation like B&Bs and local hotels will benefit from that crowd. Think about how much Alton Towers benefits the local businesses, and that is a resort on a mere fraction of the scale that the London Resort is intended to be!
There are probably more benefits that I haven’t mentioned above, but my point is; the government will probably be very, very keen for this to happen. This is the sort of thing that would be considered a top-down development, where the economy benefits hugely from it and these benefits eventually trickle down to the community in various ways. I get the impression that Boris Johnson and his government (as well as past Conservative governments) are very much fans of top-down infrastructure projects like this one, and I think infrastructure projects are going to be a very large part of the UK’s economic recovery from COVID. It may also be worth noting that this has been declared a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, so the government’s weight is definitely behind the project.

Apologies for turning the last few lines into a bit of a human geography lesson, but I just thought I could offer a bit of an alternative perspective!
 
Ah, this little gem again. The only project that makes Rookburgh look positively speedy.
More consultations, more analysis, more waffle... and a few more months worth of hefty paychecks for the Board.
Business as usual, then.
 
^ How rude. ? ? You could have been riding F.L.Y. this month had it not been for this virus, while virus or not you'll be waiting until hell freezes over to ride anything in the London Resort.

Didn't they already do consultations for this? Using the search box for this thread, it was back in 2014 & 2015. Obviously greatly advanced their planning applications back then too, I see no reason why it won't this time... Let this die already its obviously not happening.
 
I’m going to flip a coin to see if they’ll blame Covid or Brexit for the next delay. This is the longest joke in UK theme park history, with no punchline in sight.
 
www.kentonline.co.uk

Theme park bosses announce digital consultation

The developer behind a multi-billion pound theme park says they will put out their designs to the public ahead of the final plan.
www.kentonline.co.uk www.kentonline.co.uk

bit more info here
- large environmental report due to be released next week (june 12th)
- project is being spearheaded by the salvager of the millenium dome
- project has now racked up £50m in losses (duh, because a project that has been in development for 8 years is gonna be making fat wods of dough yea?)
- local MP says the planning delays mean the project bosses are drinking in 'last chance saloon'
- First ever project to be earmarked a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP), as said earlier, something that is attractive given the projected economic climate of the country
- haven't actually purchased all the land required for the resort & its infrastructure

Just so everyone has a grasp of whats going on, Chessington developed a public liaison for their MTDP a few years back with several new attraction additions, more accommodation and improved staff facilities and car parking - of all those proposals, the only thing that came to fruition was glamping. Until they break ground, anything released is just gobble and pretty drawings to keep the neighbours happy - which according to the opposition, they won't. We'll see where the £50m has gone, maybe, hopefully, probably not.

I know they've been treating the ground for a few years now (injecting limescale??? something like that) but again - until they purchase all the land required, their (what will inevitably be) several thousand pages of planning proposals are accepted which in itself is a huge back and forth between government bodies and the london resort managerial team and designers, and they. finally. break. ground... You can't be too optimistic.

But for some reason I still am lol
 
So it was actually planned to open two years ago, they have spaffed fifty million without cutting ground, and the local politicians have had enough.
Even as an optimist, in the current economic situation,this is simply never, ever going to happen.
The scream out for funds, over a decade, has failed.
This is the last shout from a drowning project, and only the geeks are listening.
 
The Facebook cover images have been updated before as well as the mentioned consoltation meetings. So been here done that, achieved a potential ferry ride to cross the river.


Ian said:
I’m going to flip a coin to see if they’ll blame Covid or Brexit for the next delay.
Click to expand...

Someone already has - not from the latest staff mind you but some genius reply from the public saying 'you know there's a virus going round right' when someone else said this has been going on a while.

That users following post may show it's a joke or they are hedging bets.
 

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It's interesting that every other entertainment resort/whatever is pushing CAPEX back at least a year, scaling down non-essential spending, and worrying about how they're going to recover, while these guys apparently never got the memo.
 
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