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[🌎 Universal GB] Planning, Transport and Infrastructure

Bowser said:
I think it’ll be particularly interesting because we have never really had a theme park built from scratch in England, they’ve all grown out of other ventures across decades (or even centuries) let alone something of this scale.

American Adventure was probably the closest thing and that was almost 40 years ago.
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There’s Gulliver’s Valley in Rotherham which used to be an open cast coal mine. Vastly different scale though.

The nerd in me is going to be fascinated at the logistics, having been involved in numerous motorway upgrades in my past life the type and scale of machinery that exists that no one really knows about is crazy.
 
Bowser said:
I think it’ll be particularly interesting because we have never really had a theme park built from scratch in England, they’ve all grown out of other ventures across decades (or even centuries) let alone something of this scale.

American Adventure was probably the closest thing and that was almost 40 years ago.
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and the original Thorpe Park had a similar beginning to American Adventure, they were both former quarries. Thorpe of course then got a significant amount of new hardware when Tussauds took over in the 2000s.
 
New parks from scratch...and Camelot.
Built from scratch on the old Arena North site...Good old It's a Knockout site.
And the stage set for International Velvet with Liz Taylor...you could still see some of the horseriding jumps when it was Camelot.
 
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jon81uk said:
and the original Thorpe Park had a similar beginning to American Adventure, they were both former quarries. Thorpe of course then got a significant amount of new hardware when Tussauds took over in the 2000s.
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Thorpe was still more of a gradual transition, it was a water sports parks then more of a fairground/farm still with the focus on the water activities, it was a year or so till they had anything resembling theme park rides. I remember going and we'd just go on the boats and the train to the farm, have a picnic, watch the water skiing and that was basically the day. I think there was a model village too.

American Adventure opened with a lot of major attractions, it was really exciting seeing the maps advertising it in motorway service stations.

Universal opening an entire park with likely many of the best attractions and theming this country has ever seen will be quite the moment in history!
 
jon81uk said:
and the utility works are probably the most important part, you don't want a park full of guests flushing the toilets for the first time that season and it flooding underneath your new ride.
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It really feels like your feet are going to crack against the ro-

…

Oh..
 
The government has published a "statement of reasons" explaining the conduct of the consultation on Universal's planning application, a summary of consultation responses, the main considerations they took in to account when examining the planning application, the environmental effects and monitoring and mitigation of the parks construction and operations when reaching their decision to approve the planning application. You can see the statement of reasons here. 've not read it word for word as It's quite lengthy, and it's probably for planning permission geeks only.
 
rob@rar said:
The government has published a "statement of reasons" explaining the conduct of the consultation on Universal's planning application, a summary of consultation responses, the main considerations they took in to account when examining the planning application, the environmental effects and monitoring and mitigation of the parks construction and operations when reaching their decision to approve the planning application. You can see the statement of reasons here. 've not read it word for word as It's quite lengthy, and it's probably for planning permission geeks only.
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I'm perusing it now. Right from the off there was lots of support.

Of the circa 400 Citizen Space survey responses, around 75% supported the development, around 16% objected and the rest were neutral. Two-thirds of online respondents said they lived locally.
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I expected the approval to drop quite a bit from the Universal public consultation, as it seems the NIMBY's basically ignored it because they thought the project was never gonna happen.

*edit* Not sure whether positive or negative, but EWR are adamant that Universal leave the 'safe-guarded land alone'.

“…must not include development on any part of the EWR Safeguarded Land unless the details of such development have been approved by the Secretary of State for Transport following engagement with EWR.”
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When read in conjunction with EWR company’s aspirations of developing a station by 2040, this amounted to a request to sterilise all safeguarded land within the site prior to, and even indefinitely beyond, 2040 unless approval is given by the Secretary of State for Transport. This would mean that two Secretaries of State would need to agree to any development on the safeguarded land.
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*2nd edit* Going through it and there were not alot of objectors (still got loads to go through). But ASDA actually objected.
ASDA objected to the development on the grounds that the proposals had not adequately demonstrated that they would be safe from a traffic management and safety or a health and safety perspective. The response also suggests that there has not been sufficient evidence that the proposals are satisfactory from an environmental health and existing business operation perspective. Specific concerns include highway safety; danger from hazardous substances; and conflict with the established environmental health regime.
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*3rd edit* This probably the most pertinent section for those who are worried for other UK Parks.
It is not expected that the proposed ERC would materially divert trade from other existing theme parks in the UK, which are aimed at a different market and provide an entirely different experience in terms of scale and nature.
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It seems the prevailing thought here is that the other UK Parks can co-exist with UNiversal.
 
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xtpower said:
I'm perusing it now. Right from the off there was lots of support.



I expected the approval to drop quite a bit from the Universal public consultation, as it seems the NIMBY's basically ignored it because they thought the project was never gonna happen.

*edit* Not sure whether positive or negative, but EWR are adamant that Universal leave the 'safe-guarded land alone'.



*2nd edit* Going through it and there were not alot of objectors (still got loads to go through). But ASDA actually objected.

*3rd edit* This probably the most pertinent section for those who are worried for other UK Parks.

It seems the prevailing thought here is that the other UK Parks can co-exist with UNiversal.
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You can see the EWR land on this document
 
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