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Potential New Universal UK Park

Matt N said:
Surely this is more likely ground testing of some sort, isn’t it?

I can’t imagine any big clearance would occur until Universal have gained planning permission, which I can’t see being any time soon (I think maybe next year at the absolute earliest).
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Technically if the government are set to approve the funds needed for their bits for the project isn’t the whole process they’re going to go through now application wise just essentially box ticking?

So whilst they’re not going to be pouring concrete some land clearance is permissible when it’s effectively going ahead behind closed doors and contracts will have been signed.

What’s left to go really? Another public consultation for a project that’s 99.9% going ahead. Land clearance in the meantime doesn’t seem totally out of the realm of possibility.
 
Dave said:
The idea that one lone digger is ground clearance for a theme park 😂

Honestly best guess they are flattening some land for site offices (temp structures so don’t need permission so long as the land changes are not extreme), which is a blooming good sign but isn’t ground clearance.
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Of course it is not for the theme park, it is vegetation being removed and likely being removed so they can construct site offices before September. One of the residents said previously that they think the houses on Manor Road will be demolished to create a site entrance, the area being cleared is directly behind the existing entrance on Manor Road to the rear of the properties.

@Matt N Sadly there is likely many sites that will need to be dug out for testing due to previous use, this area looks to have been next to a concrete area but doesn't look good on old Google images

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If you look in the background of the video, I think you can see someone sewing a Minions Costume too. It'll be open in no time!

In all seriousness though, we're just one step further along what is still a very long road.

Rachel Reeves approving the funds in principle is just reducing another barrier on that road. After all, the government allocating money to a project is very different to spending that money. At the very least there are a lot of planning negotiations still to go, both for Universal, and probably now also for the Government depending on what infrastructure they agree to put in place.
 
Blackrock said:
Technically if the government are set to approve the funds needed for their bits for the project isn’t the whole process they’re going to go through now application wise just essentially box ticking?

So whilst they’re not going to be pouring concrete some land clearance is permissible when it’s effectively going ahead behind closed doors and contracts will have been signed.

What’s left to go really? Another public consultation for a project that’s 99.9% going ahead. Land clearance in the meantime doesn’t seem totally out of the realm of possibility.
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I think “99.9% going ahead” and minimising “another public consultation” as though it’s a mere formality is maybe a tad premature at this stage.

There are many, many hurdles for Universal still to jump through. The government may be the ones rubber stamping the project at the end of the consultation, and they may have allocated funding, but that doesn’t mean that problems won’t arise during it. The public may have been very supportive during the initial consultation back last year, but that’s when Universal UK was all hypothetical and exciting. This will be a thorough consultation; the London Resort said that the DCO planning application would take 18 months from submission to approval, so I can imagine that Universal’s process will be similarly rigorous if not more so.

When that full planning application goes in and the nitty gritty of money, transport arrangements, infrastructure and all that jazz starts to be discussed, reality may bite a little more and people may begin to better realise the potential cost of making Universal UK a reality. The ill-fated London Resort proves that all it takes to completely derail a project is a small number of very dedicated opponents, and these may emerge from the woodwork once Universal UK becomes less hypothetical and starts to become like more of a realistic prospect.
 
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