London Entertainment Resort: All Discussion

[Martin]

It's almost as if someone's finding out where big projects are planned and releasing rare species into them.

Anyway, there's a reason they're rare. Because they're useless at evolution and contribute nothing to the ecosystem. Get rid of them, they're only spiders, not polar bears.

 

[Dave]

Ignoring the Spider... 3rd largest theme park in the world? If the plans they published are accurate its no where near that size.

Spiders provide masses to ecology, we would be overrun by disease carrying insects without Spiders

 

[TheMan]

It's almost as if someone's finding out where big projects are planned and releasing rare species into them.

Anyway, there's a reason they're rare. Because they're useless at evolution and contribute nothing to the ecosystem. Get rid of them, they're only spiders, not polar bears.

I know you don't like em dude, and I am not their biggest fan lol, but they aren't exactly rubbish are they lol!!

I mean they spin material stronger than steel and as flexible as silk out of their ass, now, I'm not sure I want to take that conversation any further... so I wont ;D

They've also been around, quite a bit longer than we have pmsl!

Still that is bizarre, anyone know how into wildlife Nick is? ... Got any friends off BBC wildlife?

CONSPIRARSEY!

 

[Martin]

I'm not saying kill all spiders. I wish I was, but I'm not.

I just mean kill those spiders that live where the park is supposed to be.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I'm not saying kill all spiders. I wish I was, but I'm not.

I am.

 

[Tom]

Sounds like a publicity stunt to me.

 

[Stevie]

Sounds like a publicity stunt to me.

Yeah that'll be it, for a spider themed dark ride at the park when it's open.

 

[mikeroller]

Sounds like a way the shelve the project without admitting defeat.

 

[Tim]

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!

I know your pain

---

Spider incidences aside this news article does give me some hope that it is actually happening. If they've been looking into local wildlife issues then it shows they are certainly taking this project very seriously and it's not just a dream project that'll never get off the ground.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Seriously, just get the USAF to carpet bomb the site. A double whammy of Agent Orange, followed by a Napalm chaser should sort this little setback out. Those yanks may not have many tallents, but rendering large areas of greenery uninhabitable to all life is one thing they are good at.

 

[Alastair]

It's actually a sly Merlin marketing scheme - they're planting the association between spiders and theme parks in the minds of the public, before the biggest spider of them all is revealed in May at AT

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

It wouldn't surprise me if any NiMBY-type opposition to the park took full advantage of this so the park will not be built. Endangered species can be a lifesaver for small communities who would otherwise have no say. For example, a site near where I grew up that was earmarked for to be a traveller site didnt go ahead because there was evidence of a rare newt living there that nobody had ever seen. But they were able to use it to their advantage, and thus the traveller site was never built. Of course, this is on a completely different scale, it my point still stands.

 

[Sam]

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

Everyone in Bar Buena Vista, Rust, thinks this is a load of crap.

Was clearly never going to happen and will now be quietly dropped.

Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2

 

[Sammy]

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

Everyone in Bar Buena Vista, Rust, thinks this is a load of crap.

Was clearly never going to happen and will now be quietly dropped.

Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2

Goodness me, those bar staff must be highly opinionated and knowledgeable on the topic of theme parks

But yeah, seriously, this seems like a load of utter rubbish. I honestly can't really see this park ever happening, I fear it will just suffer set back after set back and eventually slip away quietly! I would still love it to happen though, so fingers crossed the investors are serious about it!

Imo though... Sod the spiders, evil things at the best of times, let alone if they can jump!!

 

[DiogoJ42]

All spiders can jump (just as all spiders are venomous). It's just that these ones can really jump

 

[James]

This is one of two things:
1. A publicity stunt in order to make people remember what it is.
2. A way for them to be able to drop the project by giving out a quick made up press release that will allow them to let this slip under the radar.

I can't see it happening. This country gets projects like these appearing every 2-3 years and nothing ever comes to fruition.

 

[Sam]

2018 - New Park - (5/22/13) The local news reports that the proposed Paramount Park in London may be in jeopardy as the site for the park was also selected by the Department of Transportation as one of three possible locations for a river crossing route. Click here to find out more.

Not quite sure who the 'Department of Transportation' are. They must be thinking of the UK government's Department for Transport. Anyway, the article goes on...

Paramount Park project on Swanscombe Peninsula could be scuppered by new river crossing plan

A new river crossing at the Swanscombe Peninsula could scupper plans for a £2billion Paramount theme park and 28,000 jobs, a boss has warned today.

The Department for Transport has today unveiled three options for possible crossing locations - including one at Swanscombe.

The announcement by roads minister Stephen Hammond today follows extensive consultation and comes after years of talks about how to ease traffic at the Dartford Crossing.

He visited the Dartford Crossing to set out the three options for the location for a new crossing - which could cost up to £5billion:

Mr Hammond moved to address concerns about a threat to Paramount Park, saying the government would work with those behind the project.

He told KentOnline: "The government doesn't have a preferred route and I hope people will get involved with this consultation.

"Each of these routes has benefits and disbenefits - what we're saying is that by doing it this way we'll be able to do it more quickly.

"We will examine the evidence and in the autumn we will hopefully announce what route it is and then there will be some detailed modelling.

"Traffic over the next 20 years is likely to increase by 25% and that means we need another crossing.

"I don't have any concerns about Paramount Park. At the moment it's a line on the map and if that the route we choose we'll be working with the park to ensure it's fully compatible."

But Tony Sefton, head of London Resort Company Holdings, the project developer for Hollywood giant Paramount's planned resort, was taken aback by the suggestion the crossing could cut through Swanscombe.

He and a large planning team have been working up plans for the theme park on the 700-acre site.

Financial experts, including Chris Townsend who masterminded sponsorship of London 2012, have been in detailed talks with investors, many of them overseas.

Mr Sefton has had talks with the Prime Minister's office and other government departments and had given "fantastic" support.

"We have had introductions to investors from the Prime Minister's office," he said. "This is not brilliant timing for us. UK Plc is shooting itself in the foot."

"It could really scupper plans. We are in the final throes of negotiating a very large investment and this makes it very difficult."

It was vital for the government to be seen to be supporting the scheme, he added. "That's very important to overseas investors because we have a reputation in this country of not delivering.

"It's an uncomfortable position when we're saying yes the government is fully behind this and then you've got something like this coming at us.

"The new crossing is absolutely needed but to put this out there publicly will create a storm. It's not helpful when we are in major discussions with investors."

Mr Sefton was having meetings today with investors and they would "not be too impressed that a bridge and motorway might be coming through the site".

Kent and Essex County Councils have been in talks for years over how to ease congestion at the Dartford Crossing.

A Kent County Council-commissioned study in 2010 said the best way would be to bridge the Thames east of Gravesend, linking to the M11 near Stansted.

Ideas for a new Thames crossing have already been causing tension among local politicians.

Civil servants will only examine three options. The proposals were mooted four years ago and none is accepted by Gravesham or Dartford's council leaders.

It has been claimed Option A, a third crossing at Dartford, will not free up the bottleneck.

Option B, which runs from the A2 and across the Swanscombe peninsula, would scupper the Paramount theme park, a thought Gravesham council leader John Burden (Lab) called "irrational and stupid".

Option C would plough through Higham and Shorne over the water to West Tilbury, angering villagers and environmentalists.

Cllr Burden and Thurrock Council leader John Kent (Lab) say it is not necessary and that the toll gates should be opened before anything is considered.

Even Dartford Borough Council leader Jeremy Kite (Con), who says there should be a new crossing, admits there are tensions between him and the government.

Speaking last month, he said: "They're not what I would call one of the most responsible government departments, after the issues with the West Coast rail line.

"They tend to leap with both feet into these things and they don’t often have the preparation to back it up."

There is a variant on Option C, which involves widening the A229 at Blue Bell Hill, but otherwise little else has been mooted.

Engineering firm Aecom has spent a year preparing the plans.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England in Kent today branded any development of a new Thames crossing as "entirely premature".

It said new high-speed tolls at the Dartford Crossing will not be fully operational until 2014, road traffic has fallen recently and a new port in Essex could ease cargo demand.

Chairman Richard Knox-Johnston said: "We welcome the opportunity to use this consultation to make clear that plans for a new Lower Thames crossing are premature.

"Surely we need to examine the impacts of innovations such as high-speed tolling to the current crossing before considering a new road crossing."

Plans for the £2billion Paramount Park scheme on Swanscombe Peninsula were revealed late last year by the Hollywood giant, with the prospect of thousands of jobs at the Disney-style resort.

Set to be completed by 2019, it would be the third biggest theme park in the world and twice the size of the Olympic Park.

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.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

It looks to me that they are looking for any excuse NOT to build the damn place. First spiders, now a bridge. What next?

It's quite obvious they won't build it. It will be interesting to see if this crossing will be the excuse used.

 

[Meat Pie]

Bloody hell! I hadn't checked this topic recently, but have people seriously been promoting the extermination of a rare species, all in the name of a stupid theme park? Eco-cide is not a matter to be taken lightly and it's this sheer arrogance in only valuing our own short-term interets that is literally making the planet inhabitable and dangerously destroying the balance of ecological cycles.

I want a decent theme park to put the pressure on UK Merlin to put the effort in too, but that cannot come at the expense of rare or protected species. Screw the theme park, some things are more important.

 

[Martin]

It's only a spider. We're not killing polar bears, we're killing a spider that clearly failed it's biological purpose anyway if it's rare. The extermination of one sort of the most evil creatures evolution has ever created will make no difference to the world.

A theme park would stimulate the economy and also be fun. What argument does the spider have? Rare species go extinct every day without us interfering, we'll just be speeding up the process.