• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

[202X] Project Horizon (SW9?): Planning Approved

A busy week for those of us who check the planning website continues as the park have put in an 'Application for Approval of Details Reserved by Condition in relation to application SMD/2022/0556 Re:Removal of existing structures and construction of new building to house indoor attraction, associated ground works, infrastructure and landscaping. Condition 22'

No documents have been uploaded as of yet but as Condition 22 relates to the Woodland Management Plan and specifically that the planning committee wanted it updated to cover 2023-2033, we can safely assume this updated document will be what we get.

Not a particularly exciting update but the project is still progressing... slowly.
 
Dobba said:
A busy week for those of us who check the planning website continues as the park have put in an 'Application for Approval of Details Reserved by Condition in relation to application SMD/2022/0556 Re:Removal of existing structures and construction of new building to house indoor attraction, associated ground works, infrastructure and landscaping. Condition 22'

No documents have been uploaded as of yet but as Condition 22 relates to the Woodland Management Plan and specifically that the planning committee wanted it updated to cover 2023-2033, we can safely assume this updated document will be what we get.

Not a particularly exciting update but the project is still progressing... slowly.
Click to expand...
Would it have been possible to put spades in the ground, and start construction, before this document was updated? If not then I would strongly suggest that the "Horizon was intended for a 2025 opening but has been pushed back because unicorns or something" argument starts to fall even flatter then it already is, and would suggest that a '26, or beyond, opening was always the case.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Would it have been possible to put spades in the ground, and start construction, before this document was updated? If not then I would strongly suggest that the "Horizon was intended for a 2025 opening but has been pushed back because unicorns or something" argument starts to fall even flatter then it already is, and would suggest that a '26, or beyond, opening was always the case.
Click to expand...
It would have been possible in terms of this condition individually, it wasn't a prerequisite to demolition/construction beginning like the condition of an archaeological survey of the site is.
 
So it does appear as though Horizon is still progressing… would that suggest that the project might not have been completely canned, but instead merely delayed?

On a separate note; as many are debating whether the project was ever intended for 2025, I’ve found the source where I seem to remember reading that 2025 may have been the originally intended deadline. TowersTimes said that one of the documents described construction as starting in Spring 2023, indicating a 2025 opening: https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/...resort-for-project-horizon-indoor-attraction/

To me, that would infer that the project may have been pushed back by a year or so.
 
The exact reference to 2023 from TowersTimes:
"The documents submitted refer to the development as having a total construction cost in the region of £12.5 million. When considering the economic benefits of the development, it is stated that 150,000 additional visitors are envisaged due to the opening of the new attraction. Although a specific construction period of 78 weeks is stated, other documents give a more general estimate of 2 years. Therefore, with construction noted as being proposed to start in Spring 2023, this would seemingly put the attraction on track to open for the 2025 season."​
Click to expand...
It's the last sentence that's rather confusing, but contains the 2023 date. None of the documents submitted, nor any of the documents listed on the TowersTimes page, have a proposed construction start date at all (of 2023 or anything). The last sentence appears to state categorically that construction will start in 2023, but doesn't actually give a source. "with construction noted" is an interesting non-committal phrase here; where is it noted? The paragraph confuses this further because the construction period of 78 weeks - 2 years are actually real proposed construction durations listed in documents that are cited. I can only presume that the phrase "Therefore, with construction noted as being proposed to start in Spring 2023." is making an assumption of construction being proposed to start in 2023 because of previous speculative statements by commentators, an excited community and vloggers.
Matt N said:
To me, that would infer that the project may have been pushed back by a year or so.
Click to expand...
Construction couldn't have started in Spring 2023 because full planning permission wasn't granted until 22nd June 2023, the second day of Summer.

It's incredibly unlikely that construction on the project would have commenced the first day after planning permission was granted. Demolition crews have to be organised, along with construction crews and then actual purchasing and manufacturing of materials and the ride itself. I doubt that Merlin would have done any of this until planning permission was an absolute guarantee. They'd have had agreements in good faith, pencilled contracts as it were, but they would have been contingent on planning permission being granted.

The speculation that "the project has been pushed back by a year or more" only exists because of the speculation of a Spring 2023 construction start date. The former can only be true, or the case, if the latter is demonstrably true, which it isn't.
  1. Construction is going to take between 78 weeks and 2 years, so roughly 18 - 24 months.
  2. Full planning permission was granted on 22nd June 2023.
  3. Work on the site cannot take place until full planning permission is granted.
  4. It's unlikely that Merlin would have pressed the "go" button on pre-construction contracts for demolition and manufacturing before planning permission was granted.
There aren't any signs of delay anywhere, but there aren't any signs of progress either. This doesn't mean that the project has been delayed, or scrapped. Correlation doesn't equal causation. We're all extremely good at spending too much time trying to read meaning into our tea leaves, rather than drinking our damn tea.

Project Horizon can't have been pushed back if it was never intended, or even plausible, to have construction start in Spring 2023.

Let's apply Occam's razor here: If you have two competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one. Construction hasn't started on Project Horizon because construction wasn't meant to have started yet.
 
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, bit this is hidden within the Project Horizon planning documents...

image-31.png

image-26.png
 
Nothing new I don't think. Just a bit of gravelling of paths that they've already done leading out from the vicinity of the park out towards the paths into the nearby countryside in various directions. I recently trod one of them (I think) on the outskirts of the Enchanted Village down towards Crumpwood Weir. Obviously only the first bit leading out from the Enchanted village had been worked on.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
None of the documents submitted, nor any of the documents listed on the TowersTimes page, have a proposed construction start date at all (of 2023 or anything). The last sentence appears to state categorically that construction will start in 2023, but doesn't actually give a source. "with construction noted" is an interesting non-committal phrase here; where is it noted?
Click to expand...

The document you are looking for is the Noise Assessment Report, completed on 29th September 2022:

1707859251004.png

Clearly at some point it was intended that construction was due to start last year. It's more a question of when that plan changed?

Given the application originally went before the planning committee in February 2023, it would seem sensible to assume that timelines started to change when it became apparent that the plans were going to go through an extended process.
 
Squiggs said:
The document you are looking for is the Noise Assessment Report, completed on 29th September 2022:

1707859251004.png

Clearly at some point it was intended that construction was due to start last year. It's more a question of when that plan changed?

Given the application originally went before the planning committee in February 2023, it would seem sensible to assume that timelines started to change when it became apparent that the plans were going to go through an extended process.
Click to expand...
As previously noted, it's not without precedent for Alton Towers to submit planning permission, or plans, with outdated information. A recent submission included The Log Flume and Black Hole on the general map.

Plans shift and change, it is likely that Horizon was going to be submitted for planning permission in 2020 or 2021, but COVID pushed plans back slightly. When Alton Towers eventually did get around to submitting the plans, it's likely that they missed this reference to the original planned construction start time.

I realise I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I'm hungry. I'm also a goose. We like cake. 🪿
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tom
GooseOnTheLoose said:
As previously noted, it's not without precedent for Alton Towers to submit planning permission, or plans, with outdated information. A recent submission included The Log Flume and Black Hole on the general map.

Plans shift and change, it is likely that Horizon was going to be submitted for planning permission in 2020 or 2021, but COVID pushed plans back slightly. When Alton Towers eventually did get around to submitting the plans, it's likely that they missed this reference to the original planned construction start time.

I realise I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I'm hungry. I'm also a goose. We like cake. 🪿
Click to expand...
I’d wager, though, that old rides being left on a map is a far less important detail to planners than when the park expects ride construction to take place. To me, it seems unlikely that the 2023 construction start date was a mistake. This being wrong at the time of submission could possibly have caused the park trouble.

When we compare to other recent Merlin projects, the timings make sense. Mandrill Mayhem’s planning application was submitted in mid-2021 for a 2023 opening. Hyperia’s was submitted in early 2022 for a 2024 opening. Therefore, Project Horizon’s being submitted in late 2022 would make some sense for a mid-2023 construction start and a 2025 opening, in my view. If the ride had been originally intended to open in 2026 or later, the timings would suggest that the park would not have needed to file for planning permission as early as they did.

With this in mind, my personal inference from the (admittedly limited) evidence we have is that the project was originally intended for 2025, but got pushed back for whatever reason. That is only my view, though, and I’m not claiming to be correct by any stretch of the imagination. No one knows, and I doubt that we’ll ever find out!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top