[2026] CBeebies Land Junior Coaster

[Funcone]

Or maybe the BBC is about to re-imagine Postman Pat as an adult TV show, and Mrs Goggins gets arrested after the Horizon computer system goes wrong and accuses her of stealing money. They might have discussed it with Alton Towers, who didn’t like the new storyline. Obviously that’s just speculation though.

 

[owenstreet7]

And on the subject of IP, everyone is busy talking about the incoming IP but there's always the possibility that Cbeebies are opting not to renew their rights to Postman Pat, which could be a reason behind the change.

Looking at this, it seems that a division of DreamWorks who are part of Universal now, own the rights to Pat which may explain why Alton Towers and the BBC deem it not to have a long term future at the park.

 

[AT86]

Or maybe the BBC is about to re-imagine Postman Pat as an adult TV show, and Mrs Goggins gets arrested after the Horizon computer system goes wrong and accuses her of stealing money. They might have discussed it with Alton Towers, who didn’t like the new storyline. Obviously that’s just speculation though.

OMG Project Horizon makes SO much sense now.

 

[tech]

Or maybe the BBC is about to re-imagine Postman Pat as an adult TV show, and Mrs Goggins gets arrested after the Horizon computer system goes wrong and accuses her of stealing money. They might have discussed it with Alton Towers, who didn’t like the new storyline. Obviously that’s just speculation though.

In fairness they'd just have to replace the royal mail vans with prison vans, then drive around Greendale pressing the correct button to arrest each character. Fairly cheap retheme opportunity if you ask me!

 

[QTXAdsy]

I do agree that this wouldn’t have even high on my Alton priority list. I guess having another kiddie coaster is not a bad thing, but it seems like an odd choice when Octonauts already exists and there are other lineup gaps like flat rides that could be filled with similar money.

Is there a possibility that this investment was the result of some sort of multi-ride deal with the manufacturer of Chessington’s upcoming kiddie coaster? If this was the case, the investment could have resulted from Merlin corporate saying to Alton Towers “We’re giving you an XYZ kiddie coaster. Find somewhere to put it” rather than it being a case of Alton deducing that CBeebies Land needs another coaster.

I agree with this suggestion too although if this ride is part of a multi ride deal then what could be the list of similar rides being planned or being built at other Merlin parks during this time? Could give us a clue as the sort of manufacture we'll likely expect.

 

[Matt N]

I agree with this suggestion too although if this ride is part of a multi ride deal then what could be the list of similar rides being planned or being built at other Merlin parks during this time? Could give us a clue as the sort of manufacture we'll likely expect.

The only other one I could think of was Chessington’s Project Play coaster. I think it’s quite feasible that that could be the same ride type as Project Sunshine.

 

[TBoy535]

Still makes no sense replacing “rides for rides trend” when it’s a fairly new ride system in place? They could have just gave it a bluey re-theme for a quarter of the price and appeal to more ages? Im not buying the argument “we’re not the target audience” Im all for investment big or small this just makes no business sense whatsoever and the new ride won’t gain any more capacity than the previous?

I have a feeling it may have something to do with cutbacks again, original plans have changed and they need to swap a ride from alternative plans
from another park with a previous ride deal.

Alton towers have so many areas to address ASAP and I’m sorry this is just spending money for sake of it with no real gain, a re-theme or expanding on the current CBBs line up completely understandable but this is quite infuriating. Another clear example of 1 step forward 2 steps back.

 

[Ash]

The worst thing to happen to the post office since the horizon scandal

 

[Bowser]

Im not buying the argument “we’re not the target audience” Im all for investment big or small this just makes no business sense whatsoever and the new ride won’t gain any more capacity than the previous?

Not to mention some of us are parents or visit with young relatives etc and very much are the target market. I was far more curious about what this was going to be compared to Project Ocean.

Ultimately we need to wait and see if there’s an aspect to this ride not visible yet, what the height restriction is, what the capacity is and what the theming is before we write it off as a nonsensical investment.

 

[Zeock]

It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if this was an ART family/kiddie coaster, as the oval shaped layout looks similar at a glance, just without the helix after the first turn, which could be due to space limitations with the pathway and Get Set Go. - https://artengineering.de/en/produkte/attraktionen/achterbahnen/family-coaster/



Some interesting points around 365 operations in this thread, as CBeebies Land is only closed between really closed between New Years and February Half Term. We saw Octonauts close early over the Christmas season due to off-season maintenance.

The maintenance shed could potentially hold a second train so downtime during the area’s operational times is as minimal as possible. This would also enable reduce the acute pressures of the maintenance season over the main off-season as Non-Destructive Testing of the trains could be during the main season when that train would be off-circuit anyways.

If that ended up being what the park got, I wouldn't mind. It's short but it looks like there could be airtime and some G-Force, but not enough to put the young target audience off.

 

[MaxPower]

Just because it's a kiddie coaster doesn't mean it has to be a boring oval layout with a few scenic pieces dotted about.

It's almost like these parks just think 'that'll do 'cause they won't know any different'.

A bit more imagination would be nice.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

In fairness they'd just have to replace the royal mail vans with prison vans, then drive around Greendale pressing the correct button to arrest each character. Fairly cheap retheme opportunity if you ask me!

Or move the ride to another area of the park and theme it to the Alton Towers tour where you sit in vehicles and you drive past old attractions that never got replaced and you match it to the button in the car. Then at the end of the ride you have your photo taken with the slogan look how good Alton Towers use to be before Merlin took over.

As for the coaster itself I watched Bluey with my kids and my daughter said they not even been to a theme park but they got a theme park toy out that it could be based off with set pieces around the queue line. It would explain the rubbish layout.

 

[Dave]

One thing to consider is I’m pretty sure this ride is in the GDO which (and @Squiggs) can correct me if I’m wrong, they can build up to 5m without planning permission.

I’m not saying they are planning some big secret but it’s possible they haven’t yet settled on a final design but want the permission for the building and theming to progress.

Just a thought.

 

[Ash]

One thing to consider is I’m pretty sure this ride is in the GDO which (and @Squiggs) can correct me if I’m wrong, they can build up to 5m without planning permission.

I’m not saying they are planning some big secret but it’s possible they haven’t yet settled on a final design but want the permission for the building and theming to progress.

Just a thought.

Didn’t similar happen with spinball wayback when or is my mind playing tricks?

From memory it was only buildings needing advanced planning?

 

[rctneil]

Just because it's a kiddie coaster doesn't mean it has to be a boring oval layout with a few scenic pieces dotted about.

It's almost like these parks just think 'that'll do 'cause they won't know any different'.

A bit more imagination would be nice.

Exactly! This is what I meant by my previous post. Kids want to be challenged. We can do better than an oval for a kiddie coaster.

 

[Dave]

Didn’t similar happen with spinball wayback when or is my mind playing tricks?

From memory it was only buildings needing advanced planning?

Spinball didn’t need any planning permission. Smiler only needed permission for the station building (maybe excavation as well can’t remember) that was how they hid two of the inversions (third hidden as it’s in the building).

 

[flyingguitar]

Spinball didn’t need any planning permission. Smiler only needed permission for the station building (maybe excavation as well can’t remember) that was how they hid two of the inversions (third hidden as it’s in the building).

I thought the smilers inversions was because they didn't give the roll of the 2 last corkscrews (the 2 inversions before the turnaround into the brakes) so it looked like some track going back.

why didn't spin ball need planning permission? do they just have a GDO there,

I guess if they did it with smiler they could potentially but how much of a change can they allow like I understand the lift and building may not be able to be changed but I can't imagine they would be able to dig a 200 ft pit and recreate oblivion for CBeebies.

 

[Squiggs]

One thing to consider is I’m pretty sure this ride is in the GDO which (and @Squiggs) can correct me if I’m wrong, they can build up to 5m without planning permission.

I’m not saying they are planning some big secret but it’s possible they haven’t yet settled on a final design but want the permission for the building and theming to progress.

Just a thought.

Based on more recent planning documents, I don't think that is the case, no. I actually think they need full planning permission for almost the entire of CBeebies Land, other than the corner that used to be Adventure Land, where Octonauts is.

When the planning article on Towers Street was originally written*, we thought that the old Farmyard area was now a modified GDO area (i.e. an area where they can build up to 5m without specific permission), based on the Long Term Development Plan and the Churnet Valley Masterplan, amongst other docs, which indicated that this was the case. However, the small print on those docs pointed out that the changes to the GDO had not actually been agreed with the local council, but were still under consideration.

More recent documents, such as the recently published Woodland Management Plan 2023-2033, indicate that the proposed changes were never actually agreed, so Adventure Land is still shown as a full GDO (ride hardware permitted up to 25m, other structures up to 5m) and the rest of CBeebies sits outside the GDO, so requires planning permission as per the usual planning rules.

This tracks with what we've seen with the development of CBeebies Land, where we have seen planning permission for almost every significant development of the land, except for Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure. If the changes to the GDO had been agreed, that should have been the other way round. - Octonauts should have been one of the only developments that required specific permission.

*updating this article is on my to-do list

 

[Poisson]

Towers also now seem to be coming out with very accurate plans of what they plan to do, even when they aren't required. I think the basic track/themeing will be as shown but can't help think there's something not shown hopefully that is the missing link to make this a bit less rubbish.

Or it is a B-a-a/Duplo clone and they've drawn an oval as that's easier to represent and close enough. Probably more likely.

 

[Themeparksandy1981]

Do u think it Octonauts didn’t need planning permission as it was replacing a coaster (Beastie) that originally was on the same plot of land.