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Planning applications for new Scarefest maze locations

That Merlin magic making van has been there since curse was being built.

Heres some pics from the weekend with foundation work now taking place. Also they haven’t had permission approved yet, but they must be pretty confident
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There’s currently no sign of activity on the darkest depths site as far as I can see.
 
Makes sense to start now, even if by slim chance planning is rejected. You could still do something with the floor space temporarily id think.

I know the excitement is mostly about scarefest, what are the other options in play here?
 
The other strong contender would be replacement 'back of house' facilities.

Most notably, there are some facilities on the Horizon site that will need to be relocated to allow for that area to become part of the park's front of house. In previous planning doc (the last long term development plan) the yard behind The Curse was identified as where some of the backstage facilities would be relocated to when the time came, though I don't believe this was mentioned as part of the Horizon planning docs.
 
The fate of the first of these two applications (off Gloomy Lane) was supposed to be determined last week and its status has been listed as 'Recommendation entered - Pending decision' for at least the last ten days, but this morning had its 'Agreed extended date' listed as...well... today.

8:20pm and still nothing...
 
Dobba said:
The fate of the first of these two applications (off Gloomy Lane) was supposed to be determined last week and its status has been listed as 'Recommendation entered - Pending decision' for at least the last ten days, but this morning had its 'Agreed extended date' listed as...well... today.

8:20pm and still nothing...
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The agreed extended date for this Gloomy Lane application has now been set for June 4th.

The determination required date for the Darkest Depths replacement passed 13 days ago, with no extension date listed to this point.
 
Dobba said:
The agreed extended date for this Gloomy Lane application has now been set for June 4th.

The determination required date for the Darkest Depths replacement passed 13 days ago, with no extension date listed to this point.
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With The Dungeons set to close earlier than expected, is it possible that they've shifted around with the construction timeframe for Scarefest so The Dungeons overlay starts construction sooner and these attractions get built late Summer/Oktoberfest?
 
Both applications are now listed as 'Recommendation entered - Pending decision' with the determination day set for June 4th.

Guess we might find out between now and then what the hold-up was. We saw documentation being altered when Project Ocean's date got put back, so maybe this will be the case here too.

Most notably, the wording of the application descriptions have changed. Gone are the references to these being 'facilities buildings' and now they're acknowledging that these are visitor attractions.

Gloomy Lane:
Removal of the existing 2 no. static and 1 no. portacabins and the decluttering of the site in general to provide a storage and visitor attraction (Multi use) building that consists of 6 no. containers (3 per side lengthways) and tensile domed roof between.
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Darkest Depths:
Removal of the existing 2 no. static and 1 no. portacabins and the decluttering of the site in general to provide a storage and opportunity for visitor attraction (Multi-use) building that consists of 6 no. containers (3 per side lengthways) and tensile domed roof between
Click to expand...
 
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Back in the day the towers used to close in August and be ready for scarefest with the mazes built from scratch each year, and that’s when we used to get new mazes every year or two.

So there’s plenty of time to get mazes sorted in these new buildings.

I can’t imagine they’ll take long to build. As it’s just some cornered and a tent over it.
 
As of this morning both applications have been APPROVED.

Opera Snapshot_2024-05-31_132702_publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk.png

To further the changes made to the application description, the reports for both decisions describe their use as 'mainly for storage with the intention to use as a visitor attraction during seasonal events. During these events, items stored in the building will be placed around the theme park and the storage space will become an attraction site'

So at the very least we're getting one brand new maze location, one completely rebuilt one and potentially something in the current Dungeons. Obviously they don't go into where the stored items will go when these are turned into mazes, but it certainly gives more space for the mazes in the Towers to be stored so they can be opened up again.
 
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Poisson said:
Your italics part explains it. They store Scarefest props in them so during Scarefest the props are out and the space is open for use
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Yes but it doesn't say where the Scarefest props that are stored in them would be going, hence me hedging my bets about this possibly being space that can free up the Towers to be open prior to Scarefest.
 
I would hazard a guess that you'd put the advertising stuff in them at least, so that goes out early (August?) allowing work to commence on the actual maze
 
Where is storage currently in site? Coaster corner? The towers? Behind towers street?

If they’re consolidating storage I’m more intrigued about what they intend to do with the new space.

I’m surprised they haven’t installed a 3rd somewhere that could be used for Christmas too

(Arguably the darkest depths one could)
 
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