London Entertainment Resort: All Discussion

[Fredward]

I'm on the side it'll never happen,

If this doesn't happen who will be more disappointed? Diogo or Sam? And if it does happen who will be happy to be wrong?

Therefore, the cynical view is often the best view on a product as big.as this, 18 months of planning permission? A lot can go wrong, you need just one person akin.to the ropers to complain and can chain react a campaign of protest.

I won't get excited until construction works start.

 

[EuroSatch]

New UK theme park anyone? Paramount interested in UK

But it has the advantage of being on a disused construction site, and the location on a peninsula in a mainly industrial area of the Thames Estuary removes most nimbyism

 

[BigAl]

There'd have to be something wrong with you to object to this though, really! Who'd choose an ugly, desolate plot of emptiness over a new entertainment complex that wants to create 27000 jobs (to start with) plus building contracts, etc...? So long as they can make it successful, this whole project could be fantastic for the surrounding area and the theme park industry in the UK.

 

[DiogoJ42]

The Ropers would. Most of the people in my town would. Anyone over the age of 40 (forum members excepted ) would. Anyone who owns property in the area would. Parents with children who use nearby roads would. Animal worshiping hippies would.

They list of types of people who would complain about it is far greater than the list of those who want it.... which is pretty much just us lot.

 

[BigAl]

Work hasn't started on the Paramount Park in Spain because of this...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5T5l-glCS4[/youtube]


Here are some photos of that site that were taken a few days ago...

Source.


So they're behind schedule on construction because of dust. Lots of dust. It should have started this month. It's still a little strange that there's absolutely nothing on the site, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Still feeling hopeful for our park, knowing that they still want to go ahead with the one in Spain.



Edit: But then we have the Paramount Movie Park in Korea...

Source.


Those two photos were taken in 2010. I can't find why everything has come to a complete stop with the project. Seems a shame and I hope these projects don't spoil it for any potential investors in our park, although it wouldn't really surprise me.

 

[Alastair]

News:

2018 - New Park - (11/30/12) New details about the proposed Paramount Park project in London came out this week as the developer shared a bit more information about his plan. In addition to the theme park, the project area would have an indoor waterpark, theaters, movie theaters, and something called Techno Expo, an exhibit space for future technologies. There is still plenty of development time left here however, as they don’t expect to be ready to begin construction on the project until early 2015.

 

[Sam]

2018 - New Park - (11/30/12) New details about the proposed Paramount Park project in London came out this week as the developer shared a bit more information about his plan. In addition to the theme park, the project area would have an indoor waterpark, theaters, movie theaters, and something called Techno Expo, an exhibit space for future technologies. There is still plenty of development time left here however, as they don’t expect to be ready to begin construction on the project until early 2015.

And the article in question...

Details emerge about Swanscombe’s Paramount theme park

The man behind Paramount Park last night set out his vision of the biggest, greenest, most advanced leisure destination that hails the best of British.

The Swanscombe Peninsula could be transformed into a park that rivals Disneyland resorts across the world.

It would have a theme park based on a Hollywood movie set, an indoor water park, theatres, cinemas, event space and a country park at the peninsula’s tip.

Techno Expo, an exhibition of future technologies such as high-speed cars, would add an educational aspect and every afternoon a massive carnival would be held followed by a full-blown evening show.

Tony Sefton, director of Vision XS, which is one of the largest players in the theme park industry, spoke to Gravesham residents on Wednesday (28) to answer the numerous questions that have arisen since the first announcement of the plans in October which, he explained, was a rushed response after an internal leak.

Mr Sefton described Paramount Park as a means to “rebalancing the economy and regenerating” the area.

He added that few areas in Europe were suitable for this type of project and his team had already worked for three years studying whether the Swanscombe peninsula would work.

It is the existing transport links – the motorway, the high-speed train to London and the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet – that let to the selection of the site.

A Thames airport was not on their agenda, he said, although it was a “pipe dream”, and as for a third Thames crossing at Swanscombe, he said the park wouldn’t happen if a bridge was built.

In order to limit congestion on local roads, they plan to time the carnival and evening show during peak hours so few visitors cars leaving the park at those times, and the idea is to promote the “highest public transport mix of any major leisure park”.

Mr Sefton addressed concerns that the jobs created would only be seasonal by saying international resorts of this kind have a visitors all year round.

Recruitment will also take into account ex-offenders, NEETs and those approaching retirement or already retired.

Environmental concerns were also focused on, citing plans for using roof space for generating electricity and using waste to pump water back in.

It would be a place for training people in their careers, getting young people interested in new technology and promoting the best of British.

Mr Sefton said: “As much as we are using the Paramount brand we don’t want to take a chunk of America and plonk it in north Kent. We will have major British brands throughout the park.”

The Paramount Park plans will be open to a public consultation from early next year, and if it goes ahead construction could begin in the beginning of 2015.

Paramount Park so far…

In October, just the mention of a Paramount theme park led to 1.5 million tweets and 1,500 news articles within a couple of days.

27,000 jobs would be created: 7,000 in the resort, 3,000 in the hotels, 4,000 in commercial businesses supporting from bread deliverers to builders, 3,000 from UK and international firms basing themselves here and 10,000 in the local area supplying services.

At Alton Towers 95% of visitors use cars; at Tokyo Disney it is only 41%: Vision XS wants to minimise car travel.

Plan to subsidise one million school visits every year.

Already five years of new rides, shows and restaurants planned.

Still sounds very unlikely to actually happen.

 

[Fredward]

Re: New UK theme park anyone? Paramount interested in UK

When he compares car travel with Alton towers and Tokyo Disney, that's not a brilliant comparison unless they are planning to redo the entire UK transport system!

Problem with UK public transport is its expensive, its probably cheaper to hop in a car and pay full price then to use public transport and get half off.

You'll have to get a significant discount for using public transport to make it worth while when driving is hassle free most part and quicker.


Sent from my phone using Tapatalk, please excuse any ridiculous mistakes!

 

[thefatone]

Not when the public transport is convenient like it would be in this location. People use the most convenient, and using the car is the least in that area.

That explains the 27,000 jobs. Still, it happening? Unlikely.

 

[Fredward]

Re: New UK theme park anyone? Paramount interested in UK

This isn't in London, its Kent it'll still be quicker the drive around London then get then travel via train through it. (depending on initial location ofcourse)

I've done both journeys and car is much easier, quicker and cheaper then getting the train through London.



Sent from my phone using Tapatalk, please excuse any ridiculous mistakes!

 

[Sam]

UK public transport is so appalling (mostly due to privatisation) that's it's nearly always cheaper to drive anywhere. However well serviced the park is by public transport, if things stay the same as they are now, it'll be cheaper to drive there.

 

[Ted]

The public transport around the area is actually quite good, and depending what route you can take, it can be quite quick!

For instance, the nearest station to the site is Swanscombe. I took the train last month from London Bridge to Swanscombe and it took me 45 minutes on the slow train. The fast train it takes about 30 minutes to reach Swanscombe station, which is less than the time it takes to go from Waterloo to Staines if you're travelling to Thorpe. The Site is nearly literally up the road from Swanscombe station which is about as easy as walking from Chessington South Station to CWOA.

An alternative route to the park is taking the High Speed train to Ebbsfleet International from St Pancras, this takes about only 20 minutes or even less than that. It shows that getting there can be quick!

Yes I do agree that travelling by car is cheaper than travelling by train to this area, However this is 2012 where it happens to be. what if in 2018 where travelling by Train becomes cheaper and easier? and travelling by car becomes more expensive? Just having a thought

=)

 

[thefatone]

Transport to that particular location is a piece of piss. Even if you travelled through london - most people would only need to get one tube transfer (if that). It'd be the easiest park to get to by public transport - better than Chessington which has an extremely good regular bus and train service.

 

[BigAl]

From Screamscape:

2018 - New Park - (12/11/12) According to this news article the man who helped raise the funds needed to secure the London 2012 Olympic Games has been assigned the task of helping the Paramount Park project in Kent become a reality.

The article mentioned above:

The London 2012 chief who helped raise £2 billion towards the cost of the Games has been given the job of getting a “British Disneyland” project off the ground.

Chris Townsend, the commercial director at London 2012 organiser Locog, has been appointed to the same role to create a £2 billion theme park in Kent for Paramount Pictures to open by 2018. Mr Townsend this week begins talks with City investors to raise debt and equity funding for the project on an 872-acre site on the Swanscombe peninsula near Ebbsfleet.

He has been appointed by London Resort Company Holdings, a development vehicle which has signed a deal with

Hollywood-based Paramount for an exclusive licence in the UK. He told the Standard: “Post-Olympics it’s probably going to be the country’s biggest and most exciting regeneration project. The UK doesn’t have a destination on this scale and the closest to us is Eurodisney in Paris.

“There’s real support at a local level and a lot of interest from potential investors. I’m confident that this stands a very good chance of happening but it is a tough market. The UK needs big regeneration projects to kick-start the economy and this will be a substantial tourism destination not just for the UK but for Europeans.”

The theme park will feature Paramount brands such as Star Trek and there will be water parks, cinemas and live music venues. Mr Townsend said: “It will be taking the best of Paramount and bringing it to life.”

He said most funding would be in place next year, triggering a planning application. LRCH said the park would create 27,000 jobs. Transport links are key to its success with a 17-minute rail journey from Ebbsfleet to St Pancras, new Crossrail links and proximity to the M25.

Mr Townsend said the Olympic commercial programme was the “most successful of any Games” having raised £2.4 billion through sponsorship, broadcast, ticket and merchandise revenues. He has just returned from the Olympic debrief to 2016 host Rio and said it was “in good shape”.

*fingers still crossed*

 

[Rob]

By appointing someone like that it does show how serious they are about it, and that can only be seen as a good thing!

 

[LiamC]

I have every faith in this going ahead now with the required funding now that Chris Townsend has been announced. He did a fantastic job for the Olympics and I'm pretty sure he can replicate that here, although I think this will be a harder job for him.

The bit that catches my eye most is:

From Screamscape:

Transport links are key to its success with a 17-minute rail journey from Ebbsfleet to St Pancras, new Crossrail links and proximity to the M25.

If that works out it would mean I could get there in around three hours using public transport, which is just shy of what it takes me to get to towers! Exciting times ahead ;D

 

[Rob]

A little bit of news relating to the park:

Building of huge £2bn Paramount theme park halted by colony of rare spiders

The consortium behind the Paramount theme park will now have to find a new home for the colony

Plans for a giant new £2bn theme park set to rival Disneyland Paris have been derailed - thanks to a colony of rare jumping spiders.

The theme park will be twice the size of the Olympic Park, will create 27,000 jobs and be the third biggest theme park in the world - only if the special arachnids are removed.

An environmental audit of the 872-acre brownfield site in the Swanscombe Peninsula, Kent, has found it is one of two sites in the UK where the critters dwell. The spiders are protected on a biodiversity priority species list.

London Resort Company Holdings, the consortium behind the Paramount theme park will now have to find a new home for the colony.

The Paramount scheme, supported by Paramount Pictures, aims to create Europe's largest indoor water park with theatres, live music venues, attractions, cinemas, restaurants and hotels.

Tony Sefton, project director for LRCH, said there are plans to create a 27-acre wetland wildlife park on the site.

He said: "We will look after the spiders. We're doing a good thing."

He said LRCH hope to find a solution similar to that reached at the London 2012 Olympic Park where species found during development were moved to a wildlife sanctuary.

Dartford Borough Council leader Jeremy Kite said there are solutions to preserving unusual species.

He said: "In the past we've moved fish, we've sent voles away on holiday; it's fairly common and protects them from building works.

"Then when they're finished they're brought back."

The only other UK home for distinguished jumping spiders, which have the Latin name sitticus distinguendus, are the West Thurrock marshes in Essex.

The spiders are on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species list, but it is not legally binding. But the list means the Joint Nature Conservation Committee has deemed the species threatened and one that requires conservation action. There is actually no law preventing developers building on the rare spiders' home.

There are 37 types of jumping spider in the UK, but worldwide it is the largest spider family, containing over 5,000 species.

They have a very large front pair of eyes, and are thought to possess the best vision for an invertebrate after cephalopods - octopus, squid and other molluscs.

This vision, along with an ability to jump, allows them to actively hunt their prey during the day.

Source

Sounds like they are still very serious about the park. Damn spiders though!

 

[QTXAdsy]

There seems to be a jinx when it comes to building a new UK theme park no matter how crazy they may sound, and in this case, it's spiders...christ o' mighty. :

Oh well, hope they can get those spiders out off the way and get things back on track for this park. :/

 

[Adam]

"Yes, that theme park does look fun, and it will generate a large amount of money for the local economy. But there's this colony of spiders you see. Spiders that are pretty much the same as every other kind of spider in England. And as far as I know everyone loves spiders, and would defiantly prefer spiders to a theme park. So i'm afraid that theme park ain't happening..."

People like that make me lose faith in humanity...

 

[DiogoJ42]

See, if these spiders had been found somewhere that wasn't about to be turned in to a theme park, such as near a school, people would be crying for them to be exterminated. Napalmed to a crisp. Wiped off the evolutionary map once and for all. But because something is going to be built there, suddenly they need saving? Words fail me.
I know I've said from the start that I doubt this project will ever be allowed to happen, but I never expected something as pathetic as this!

One of the reasons we moved out of our last flat was because of a spider invasion when bulldozers moved in to the wasteland next door to turn it in to a park. I've never seen such huge invertibrates outside a zoo. Seriously, the first time I saw one on my carpet I thought it was a mouse (and when I realised that I could count not only it's legs, but also it's eyes from ten feet away, I screamed like a girl)... that's how big they were!

It took about half a can of bug spray to kill one of them. Even in it's dead, shrivled state, it was massive. I took the deviders from my model tool box and measured it's fangs. They were 6mm long O.O

If you've ever had the experience of being barely awake in the morning, naked and exposed, and not noticing one of these buggers sitting on your towel until said towel is inches from your face... Then you will share my opinion that anything with more than four legs is evil and must be wiped out!