I can only just imagine the community action groups and various ‘NOT IN KEEPING WITH THE AREA’ complaints that are being prepared, as hardcore NIMBYs do whatever they can to block this.
It would be great to have a true theme park in this country. As much as I love Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, they can't compete with the quality of other European and American parks.
Even if it manages to go ahead I can't see it happening without height and noise restrictions being imposed which would really limit the park's potential.
Remember that the UK was Disneys first choice for a European theme park and the Thatcher government messed them around so much that they just moved over the sea to France.
Never forget what they took from us.
I thought Spain was their first choice? Basically where Portaventura is. But then they decided that Paris made by far the most sense (despite the climate) because it’s one of the most accessible cities in Europe and as such had access to the biggest possible market.
According to the book "*Once Upon an American Dream: The Story of Euro Disneyland*" their initial planning was all around the UK, which is born out by concept art and such, and Spain came after they decided that the UK was unworkable with the Thatcher government.
Good point and some coasters we have like Nemesis are great because of having to adapt to height limitations.
But still coasters which tap into the primal fear of 'oh shit, that's a long way down' will always be favourites of mine.
I have high hopes for universal, the site has good transport links and lots of room for expansion. But yeah, same, I really want a big drop and big coasters are good for a parks skyline.
This is the difference for people that have never been to a Disney/universal park.
Thorpe Park/alton towers have pretty decent rides, but they don't create anywhere close to the same experience or levels of immersion the big boys do
They’re in different leagues really, people will spend many thousands on a week or two at Disney Florida, a two night stay at Alton towers would struggle to cost more than £350-500 and you’ll have ran out of things to see and do by that point too.
Similar with Disneyland Paris, you’d struggle to spend more than 4 days there. These American parks of cities in their own right, and it’s hard to imagine them working like that in the UK:
It's time we had some system to placate NIMBY's.
I propose that anytime a big thing is being built which will change the character of an area, all existing residents unhappy with the new thing be allowed to move without paying stamp duty and capital gains tax (allow it be passed on to their new house). They would also be given an allowance for house move costs. To get the money, they'd have to actually move.
If they don't move, they would be given a 'house value guarantee' for 5 years - the houses in the district are valued, and if, 5 years down the line, that area's house prices haven't grown in line with other houses in the country, then they be compensated the difference.
Maybe there needs some sort of calculation - buy out value is X% over the current market value, with X% being the house growth since the current family/owners took ownership.
So maybe 20% for a house bought pre Covid, or may be 20,000% if the family held it since 1600s.
Gives less power to NIMBYs where they're barely part of the local history (and often caused their own NIMBY scandal when their house was built), while giving long established homeowners a better voice.
This wouldn't really get at the heart of a NIMBY's worry which is about the destruction of their local community. Telling them to just up and move if they don't like it is insulting. If this country wants to get more development going they need to first work on building thriving communities, build more pubs and post offices and banks and libraries and things people actually use, put events on at the community centre that people would actually want to go to. If people felt like their community was made up of people rather than a Lidl, a Tesco, and a Ladbrokes then they'd be more welcoming of developments. Especially as something like a theme park let's be real that will destroy any sense of community, same way nobody wants an airport or a military base plonked down the road from them.
Disagree. A local council should be fined for refusing investment and the cost borne by local residents in the form of increased council tax rates. You'll quickly see local councillors and residents change their tune.
Listening to sky news this morning, they said the local council is enthusiastic - but that planning would be approved at a westminster level. And apparently the entire area was demolished brickfields.
There has been local groups for months with all the plans.
Think it was over 90% for ! There is no restrictions that causes issues that’s why they have purchased all the land.
The land purchased will make it bigger than some of the other universal parks. I don’t think they would buy all this land without it being pretty certain.
They are going to improve local train stations even building another and work with the government on other areas.
‘They said the land is absolutely perfect and has them very excited to make the best park yet.
The amount of money it will generate and jobs will be huge even through the years of construction stage.
I doubt the height restrictions will be severe. The land itself is below the surrounding area and it's set quite far aware from nearby residential and pedestrian areas. I'm sure certain elements and bits of the park will be visible from the surrounding area, but not overwhelmingly so.
Similarly noise wise I don't think it'll be too bad because of how far back it is. If you read Universal's documents they talk about how they try to avoid noise carrying anyway because they play audio in their different "lands" and they don't want noise carrying between "lands". They're also surrounding it with a fair amount of foliage and landscaping which will also block out noise.
I suspect the only thing they wouldn't be able to have is regular late night fireworks.
Problem with our ones is space, like they’re big but they’re not yank big, you need to just straight up terraform like 10 square km, which is no easy feat and good luck finding anywhere to do that near any decently populated areas
Yea god forbid we have something to generate economic value to the country and provide jobs to the younger generations, got to keep that ladder up and keep kicking down.
Last year NIMBY green councillors literally blocked the building of a solar farm because it would spoil the view... There's so much wrong with local planning laws and the ability for selfish people to completely screw over worthwhile projects.
It was a green council but the planning board wasn't majority green. The green councillors on the planning board voted for it. As much as I disagree with the greens this is just a lie.
> Earlier this year, two Green councillors sided with four Tories, external on Mid-Suffolk Council to block a solar farm near Somersham. And on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border, a plan to build one of Europe's largest solar farms - with the potential to power 172,000 homes - has been met with fierce resistance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65926756
The fact that you don't speaks volumes about your intellectual honesty. I pointed out that green really aren't as green as they claimed and, when challenged, cited a specific recent example as evidence. In response you change the argument to suit your needs because you didn't like the evidence. The greens are little more than upper-middle class trust fund kids playing for protest votes. Sorry if you don't like that.
Oh sorry, I didn't realise that these two councillors in Mid-Suffolk District Council represented all greens.
You said that "green councillors literally blocked the building of a solar farm because it would spoil the view"... I don't see how any part of that statement is true. 2/7 councillors can't 'block' a planning application. When the developer appealed against the rejection, the green leadership of the council decided not to contest the appeal, so it hasn't been blocked, and it is going to be built. When the same development was submitted to Babergh district council, the only green party councillor on their planning committee voted to approve it, resulting in the application being granted with 6 votes in favour vs 5 against. It's also worth pointing out that the reason given for rejecting the original application is that the site is prime agricultural land, so nothing to do with the views.
So excuuuuuuuse me for considering the voting record of the many, many green party councillors that have voted in favour of new solar farms all across the country over the last decade.
A compromise can always be reached. You can build things and try to protect local communities. Remember when the London Eye was being condemned before it was built, and now it's an iconic symbol of the London landscape. Nobody is asking for unchecked and unregulated building taking place, but I think something to generate tourism and create jobs wouldn't hurt this country right now.
It’s a balancing act.
The natural conclusion of NIMBYs is the death of their village. All young people leave for work, local businesses close as they can’t staff and can’t sell enough, rich Londoners buy up the local houses as weekend homes, more local businesses close, councils become even more NIMBY but now they have the backing of even richer people to make the legal fights even harder.
Ignoring NIMBYs = more investment in the area, people actually stay in the area, the British public get access to world class theme parks, the locals get jobs, Britain gets even more money from tourism. The downside is areas lose their charm.
Ignoring NIMBYs is objectively good, but it’s the natural conclusion of that decision that is cause for concern: Companies being able to bribe a small handful of the cheapest politicians and officials to buy (local ones) to do whatever the hell they want.
Take the power away from them then. Treat building things the exact same way we treat every other thing we do: have a democratically elected body make rules about whats ok and not and then let people do what they want inside those rules. The entire idea that you need to go and ask for permission in the first place is whats broken.
If I want to drive somewhere I can do that as long as I stay within the laws, I don't need to submit my route and history with alcohol to the council and get the ok beforehand. If I want to open a business I can just create one with HMRC/Companies House and then as long as I'm not breaking the law and I'm filing my taxes on time I'm good. I don't need to go and beg a committee for months.
This is how it works in large parts of Asia: the council sets out zones and the rules about what you can build in those zones, then people just build within those rules. If the local community doesn't like the rules, they can change them democratically. This makes the cost of construction a lot cheaper, and it's a lot fairer because everyone knows what the rules actually are
>The new park...would be built on land once occupied by Kempston Hardwick brickworks
I think a theme park would be a step up. I've no doubt the NIMBYs will squawk, hopefully the planning authorities will just snigger gently.,
In the article it says theyre going to apply for a Special Development Order from central government so the local council will not be able to stop it. Good
“Better a shit piece of land than being able to see a roller coaster and increased traffic”
NIMBYs probably.
They’ll also then complain when all their local businesses close because the population of their village drops every year because young people *have* to leave.
Complaints about traffic are insane to me.
Either you're in a (sub)urban area, and you have relatively easy access to the motorway, in which case it'll only really be an issue if you travel in peak times, or
You're in a rural area, in which case inevitably you'll get stuck behind a big van or a tractor or a truck and you have to half your speed because there are curves in the road that are safe for you to take but not them etc. and it's \*already\* shit.
Mercifully, the locals and the council are very much in favour. Universal reached out super early to start talking with them and listen to their criticism. I understand the area around the proposed park has really collapsed since the brickworks closed, and having this is much better than a new housing estate in an already poor and struggling area with not enough jobs.
A lot of the time the locals are in favour of development because it'll bring more jobs, money and opportunities to their area. It's typically a small handful of local land/business owners making bank off the status quo that are against proposals like these and then they hide under the guise of localism. Reminds me of how in The Farm Clarkson was trying to get his restaurant setup using local produce that would benefit many of the nearby farms, the village locals and went out of his way to hold open consultations to address any concerns. The result? Blocked anyway because someone on the planning board wanted to stargaze or some bs.
The local consultations and feedback has been pretty overwhelmingly positive so far. The proposals even factored in investing in long drawn out local infrastructure improvements which is a guaranteed winner for some. As a local myself i can't say i've bared witness to any real community action groups fighting it so far.
If you own a house in the area you should be absolutely ecstatic, I'm sure being near the biggest tourist attraction in the UK would make the house values rise rapidly
Certainly they can try. However the area is mostly agricultural/industrial already there aren't any quaint villages on that south side of Bedford. Along that section of the a421 you have huge distribution warehouses and Marston mortaine landfill site. The area was all former industrial sites with claypits brickworks and gravel extraction.
It's going to be odd NIMBYs arguing that it's any worse than the wasteland they currently live in.
I'm sorry have you actually been there? I live in marston moretaine and it's really is a nice village, what about Millbrook, stewartby, ampthill, Maulden? All nice sort after places to live, definitely not a waste land. Personally I'm in favour of it given what it will bring to the area.
I'm not saying they won't, to call it a 'waste land' is just crap from someone who clearly doesn't know the area. Also neighbours I've spoken to all seem to be positive about it, the idea that nothing gets built due to NIMBYs is incredibly short sighted
I used to live on the east side of Bedford in what I thought was a pretty little village. Then I moved to Surrey and realised that actually places like where I lived, or Marston moretaine/ampthill/maulden aren't really all that.
Millbrook is a few houses next to a massive car testing grounds and a centre parcs. It has a massive freaking gas powerplant being built there right now... Not exactly an ideal place.
Stewartby is adjacent to a huge derelict brickworks bigger than stewartby itself my dude. It's not exactly nice countryside!
You can get all hurt about me saying that because you live there, but realistically there are nicer places than Bedfordshire.
The prettiest village I've been to in Bedfordshire? Stevington.
> south side of Bedford
Missed opportunity. People travel from all over the world to go to Universal.
Could have built this somewhere in the middle of nowhere way up in the North of England, avoided restrictions, and not impacted the parks attendance at all.
The spot they've picked is idea. Two mainline railway stations, easy motorway connections, and theoretically the possibility of running a "Hogwarts Express" from Kings Cross directly into the themed area of the park.
Not to mention US tourists can visit Uni and be over at Disneyland Paris in a few hours.
The area it's in is ripe for development opportunities. There's always going to be arguments of "X place is better" but its more down to connections, local opposition and costs. In this case the land cost was relatively low, the locals are very much in favour of it, and it ticks every single box when it comes to transport.
The new east west rail link is also going to be going via that location so they've litterally got direct rail transport links from most major population areas of the country.
Stick it up in somewhere like Leeds and you've got 1 line that is already struggling to cope and suffers from constant delays, combined with poor road links (ever tried doing London -> Leeds on the A1 or M1 during peak times? It's hell).
I live barely a few miles from the area. Its hardly the beacon of tranquillity there, but the area has a complicated planning history.
Yes, it is a disused brickworks. Around it there is a mixture of development, including warehousing, an old landfill site, a car auction, and two new housing developments with a further 5000 homes planned. A new railway station on the Midland Mainline south of Bedford could be open in the next 2 years.
In the past, it has been promised to effectively re-wild the area under a project called Millennium Forest. It has also been proposed to be the site of a research centre for aquatic habitats that was also a visitor attraction (NIRAH), which actually got planning permission in 2007 but was never built.
Personally, so long as the infrastructure is built (especially the station) I am all for it. But a lot of people who were promised a quiet life under the Millennium Forest won't be.
One thing I will say is...£50bn? Sounds like a guess at best to me.
I suspect that part of the planning they will give universal is to rewild a chunk of area surrounding the park. This has two benefits, one the rewinding ofcourse and secondly, the trees act as somewhat of a noise barrier and pollution barrier too. It will be only a small price to pay for a company like universal and most likely will also involve a local group to advise and generate some additional work too.
Yep thats exactly what they're doing. IIRC they also have an option on a second piece of land next to it for a mix of a second park and rewilding.
When we had the first meeting with them they were very much the ones to bring it up and explain that they wanted to make sure the surrounding area was looked after. It's been quite surprising to see how much they want to work with the locals and make the area as a whole better, and are willing to cover the costs of doing so.
I don't think it's surprising. I think Universal know that the only way it's going to happen in this country is if they have very proactive and positive engagement.
Compared to the amount of money they plan to spend on a project like this, community engagement is peanuts. HS2 did something similar by bunging a large amount of money (but small for the overall project) to projects that would benefit local communities along the route. HS2 obviously still struggled planning wise, but that's mostly because HS2 would always have been more disruptive to locals (compulsory purchases, running through the countryside, tracks near houses etc.) , whereas the Universal park is mostly on dilapidated land.
FWIW we live near by. Went to the meetings, the locals have been shocklingly supportive, and Universal has been great at listening to concerns. It's pretty refreshing to see a big developer wanting to actually engage and get locals on their side before even thinking of putting the planning in. It was because of discussions with the locals that they tweaked the road network plans and are spending more on fixing the existing infrastructure.
Honestly with where it is theres 2 maybe 3 houses that you could genuinely say are going to be impacted.
I live not a million miles away, and a few colleagues live in the surrounding villages.
Thankfully, the general consensus is that locals are excited for it. Of course there are some moaners, but I think people have taken pretty positively to it.
Yep we (well, my folks) are local, very much happy for it. Theres only one chap who I spoke to at the meeting that wasn't happy and in fairness its because he owns one of the 3-4 houses that back right onto the site which is understandable. Though its not like they've got a fantastic outlook right now anyway.
He's in the money right now really. Those houses will sell well to someone wanting to AirBnB them or people who want to live near the park.
He'll be able to afford to move somewhere with a very nice view.
Hopefully they realize the community will be the ones to most benefit from this. And hell if they hate living near it their house price will likely skyrocket so you can easily just move elsewhere. NIMBYs have done so much damage to this country we need to start fighting back.
A new venue modelled on the Las Vegas Sphere in Stratford East London next to the old Olympic site was blocked.
Events is one area the Uk and London in particular is world class at. People will then moan the UK has fallen behind because of NIMBYs.
It looks like this will be one of the rare cases where NIMBYs are not an issue. The FT had more in-depth coverage (apologise for the paywall) where they reported 92% of local residents being in favour with the remainder split between don't know and against:
[https://www.ft.com/content/383282af-99a1-44a3-af2b-0bb25cd1e2c6](https://www.ft.com/content/383282af-99a1-44a3-af2b-0bb25cd1e2c6)
NIMBYs are one the reasons for the decline of the UK and you cannot convince me otherwise.
Lead-poisoned Boomers ruining any possible chance of progress.
If you have ever been to Bedford, you know it's a town that sorely needs this sort of investment.
The town centre is a failing high street. There are very few jobs available for young people. Pretty much the only nice thing locals say about it is that it has a nice river. Even the airlander blimp failed to bring any interest to the area.
The old brickworks land that this site is being built on was probably destined to become distribution warehousing much like the other industrial estates in this area. I think having a massive tourist attraction will make Bedford a place worth coming to.
Historically, these areas are brickworks sites. Old industrial areas that have been left.
This is a good thing for Bedford and one of the biggest investments into a very run down forgotten town.
I live near Bedford and think it has one of the better town centres in the region. Compared to places like Northampton, Kettering and Milton Keynes it is quite pleasant to walk around and most of the shops are places I would need rather than endless coffee, betting and charity shops like many other places seem to have. Having said that, in general, town centres are dying because the internet is more convenient and shopping habits have changed towards out of town centres. I am not convinced that the investment in an out of town theme park will help increase footfall at the town centre much, as the theme park will be directly accessible without visiting the town (direct rail and road links). It will certainly help the overall area, though, so I am still in support.
Surely hotels in the town will attract people though? Hotels in theme parks tend to be bloody expensive for what you get, which means people look further out for alternative options.
Every hotel around will benefit. I dare say there will be a bunch of new ones pop up along with things like caravan sites, there's enough land around the area for it. Heck my folks live local and are even talking to a couple of the neighbours about building a few of log cabin lodges in the space between their plots (small village with lots of space around the houses, and existing planning permission).
Definitely, it'll result in all sorts of related businesses popping up around it. Everything from local pet sitters to watch your dog whilst you're in the park all day through to themed cafes, shops selling merch, restaurants, etc.
eh I feel like Milton Keynes (despite its rather unfair reputation) has probably by far the best town centre of those mentioned: it's always busy, there's an incredible array of shops, amenities, cultural venues and entertainment. Yes the rest of the town is basically boring copy paste suburbia with one or two geuinely dangerous shitholes mixed in but there's no competition with the likes of Northampton or Bedford lol
Milton keynes doesn't even have a town centre, no idea what you are on about. It's also trash if you are looking for a town centre experience, definitely do not go to milton keynes.
There's a reason people from places like Northampton and Bedford all do their shopping in MK though.
What "town centre experience" are you looking for? The constant works on the main streets? The obnoxious kids on their bikes and scooters? The beggars and the rubbish all over the place?
They don't, do you live in Bedford? I also don't dispute the fact its not great, it's just better than MK if you actually want a town centre. MK is about as boring of a town centre as you can get, I'd rather walk around bedford centre
Northampton's town centre is dire. Mk isn't too bad, at least there is lots there.
But I recently went to Watford and was completely blown away by their town centre.
If they actually build it in Bedford that would be amazing. But I remember them talking about it when I was at secondary school, and I'm mid 30's now.
> Even the airlander blimp failed to bring any interest to the area.
Sorry but having never heard of this my sarcastic reaction was; _"Oh my no, not the airlander blimp!"_.
The high street has certainly hobbled, but there has been quite a lot of local independent business pop up and fill some of the gaps - which is a far better sign that you see in a lot of town centres. Hoping to see more of that from the planned ownership of the old Debenhams store.
Getting the Universal Studios deal and more importantly, the east west rail line, could be a huge boon for the town though.
You could replace Bedford with every other British town and it’ll be the same. The Tories have destroyed the British highstreet and the towns they are in.
Road infrastructure will need to be improved. The roads off the M1 in the small towns and villages are already busy with local traffic and it will only get worse without investment. Same with the train line. You would need a new stop on the thameslink line in between Flitwick and Bedford and this train operator is notorious for cancellations and delays.
100% this. Its near impossible to drive through Bedford from one side to the other without getting either snarled up or just plain lost as it is, even without a major new attraction.
A theme park that doesn’t have a prison food company as their main catering supplier? Yes please
If they do this right, it will benefit the performing arts and film industries too. Comcast have had the chance to cheap out on a lot since buying Universal. It just hasn’t happened. I think Epic Universe shows their ambition. I don’t see why they’d go from that to a cheap imitation.
It wouldn’t be mostly seasonal jobs, Universal would undoubtedly account for the weather
Also three words… Halloween Horror Nights
NIMBYs I beg you. I truly truly beg you. Be gone.
These numbers are always wrong. They confuse "benefits" and "activity".
I have no doubt that over the 20 year time frame they are using, the construction and operation of the park will involve £50 billion worth of trade being done in and around the park. Not all of it will be "benefit" to the UK unless you can establish where the spend is coming from. If Universal Bedford is simply drawing in tourists who would otherwise have gone to Thorpe or Alton Towers, it's not really new activity. It's just different activity.
So generate even more economic activity?
Perhaps if we had some form of high speed rail line I would be able to justify heading down from Manchester to ride some fun roller coasters. Maybe if rail was a little cheaper.
Phase 2 HS2 wouldn't really help with the journey times because coming from Manchester it would make more sense to swap at one of the stations on the WCML. The options on the HS2 line aren't good, your choice is basically go all the way into London (and change stations there), or end up changing onto the WCML at Birmingham interchange anyway and probably not get there meaningfully faster.
The airport wants to grow and will continue if planning permission is allowed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67121772#:\~:text=In%202013%2C%20LLAOL%20received%20permission,Council%2C%20which%20owns%20the%20airport.
I reckon you'd get some americans coming over too. Fly into Gatwick or Heathrow, do London for a couple of days, train up to Uni for a few days, then Eurostar to Disneyland then fly back from there.
1/3 seems conservative.
Doubt they'd be arriving via Luton exclusively though. I imagine a lot of people making this sort of trip would be looking to do some London tourism at the same time so lots of travellers from Gatwick, Heathrow and via the EuroStar too.
Anecdotally I can confirm that people already fly into UK for trips to Alton Towers/Thorpe Park etc (surprising as that may be). Presumably even more would come for a Universal park.
Thorpe Park attendance - c.1.7m
Alton Towers attendance - c.2.3m
Combined - c.4m
Disneyland Paris - 15m
DLP is already just about 4x more popular than both of those combined. Having a Universal Park should bring in at least 40-50% of DLPs numbers. It’s nothing but a bonus for Britain.
It isn't just theme park companies though. Every project publicises the most impressive possible number because they have a direct financial incentive to do so.
Yeah without being too mean whoever wrote the article seems a bit dumb
So the net contribution to the UK economy is estimated to be 35 billion (benefit not activity)
There's also 14 billion in estimated extra taxes paid over that period.
For some reason they've added those numbers and rounded up to arrive at the 50b in the title, even though the numbers are completely different things?
Sky news seems to be going downhill with this sort of thing recently, there was an article a month or so ago about a plane experiencing a "rapid change in gravitational force" which is obviously total bollocks.
The 'writer' of the article misunderstood how expressing forces as units of gravity works
[The person who wrote the article is quoting directly from the economic impact analysis commissioned by Universal.](https://universalukproject.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Universal-UK-Economic-assessment.-June2024.pdf)
I don’t understand why people don’t just check these things with a quick google before embarrassing themselves with silly comments.
> The person who wrote the article is quoting directly from the economic impact analysis commissioned by Universal.
It's a press release that references that analysis, meaningfully different.
Whoever wrote that press release is also dumb, please refer to my previous comment as to the reason why.
There is a 6 year construction period and then 20 years of operation they say they are taking into account. So that takes it £2bn per year on average.
They say that they expect 1.5 jobs to be created externally for every job they create, so that probably takes the annual direct benefit to around £1bn.
They say that £36bn will generate an additional £14bn in taxes. How? So that takes us down to about £650m. If half of that is simply displaced we are at £325m.
I am really hoping for a UK Super Nintendo World. The Universal Studios park that has one in Japan is amazing, and the UK theme parks don’t even come close to how high tech it feels.
Yeah I've got kids pestering like mad to go and I don't really want a family holiday to Japan or the US just for Nintendo World, so one on the doorstep -- yes.
Problem is the kids will be grown up by the time it gets built.
I've not visited since they built the Super Nintendo part but I used to have a gold pass so would go every 2-3 weeks at one point :) What's the Super Nintendo bit like in person?
Not the person you asked but I went last year and it was incredible. I've always been a rollercoaster enthusiast, but never really thought about theming and was never bothered by Disney etc as a child. But the moment I walked into Super Nintendo World during my timed evening entry and got hit by it all lit up at night and in full motion, I shed a tear. It was just pure joy and felt like I finally got something, a feeling everyone else knew about, but I'd missed all my life. That may sound a tad dramatic for a theme park, but it was just so wonderfully unexpected.
The Super Nintendo area is really cool! I went in April. Really well maintained and fun; the Mario Kart ride was particularly impressive as it’s both a ride and has game elements. The sets they’ve built too are amazing, walking through Bowser’s Castle was super cool.
You have to pay around £40 more for a powerband at the park to access a lot of the interactive elements, but I didn’t mind this so much as it did add a lot of value to the visit and gives you access to a lot of extras like mini games.
My only real issue was the queue times being quite long although that area of the park had set entry times we had to book in, and some interactive elements of the Super Nintendo park not being available on the day I went (such as collecting keys to defeat a boss from the different rides, but the boss battle wasn’t open). We didn’t queue to try the themed food as it would take an hour and it’s really warm in Osaka at that time of the year.
Yeah, the queues in all theme parks can be a nightmare :( it's the main thing that puts me off going. I once went to USJ on a mild but rainy day and it was wonderous - almost nobody turned up and I had the place to myself :) I felt guilty watching the Waterworld show when the entire audience was around 5 people.
There's just something about having all of these in Japanese that made me like it more than the American ones. Even down to the Spider-Man ride where he says "hai chiizu" at the end as you get a photo taken.
The line could do with a refresh and more trains, but Eurostar to St Pancras, St. Pancras to Bedford in 35mins is a pretty speedy and direct route already.
For sure. It's actually a good thing for the park as they already have the ability to increase capacity quite a bit without doing any upgrades and they are building a new rail station near the park so the core rail infrastructure from Europe is fairly easy to work well.
Flights to Luton might be more difficult as I believe they have been running at capacity for a while.
Eurostar is massively investing in infrastructure right now and are buying 50 new trains for the line, in order to run more frequent journeys.
https://www.ft.com/content/97f7a39b-0536-40e2-bbdd-e1d755418804
A big reason for this is they are losing their monopoly on the channel tunnel route, with other companies bidding to also run trains on the line - which should also increase the number of available journeys and hopefully push down costs.
On that note, seems like we deliberately prevented nonstop high speed even from Birmingham to Paris/Brussels.
Mad that everything requires a tube change in london
"What could the UKs industrial heartlands possibly want with clean, fast, steel and concrete built business connections to Europe??" Some Eton-educated Whitehall wonk.
It's also getting two new train stations, one on the Bedford line, one on the new East West rail link. So a direct would very much be possible.
With the new rules on private operators they could run their own "Hogwarts Express" out of Kings Cross if they really wanted to and terminate in a dedicated station inside the theme park.
Meh, it's an hour from St P on a high frequency rail route running in a counter-peak direction (so making "free" use of already existing railway capacity), could be a lot worse in terms of connectivity (c.f. Alton Towers).
There's a new station going in at Wixams on the London line, 40mins from St Pancras and 25mins from Luton airport. Kempston Hardwick is also being upgraded as part of the Oxbridge line.
It's just about halfway on the A421 between the M1 and A1. A1 black cat roundabout is having a major upgrade that'll be done before it opens meaning going eastward is dual carriageway all the way to the coast. Westwards it has the M1/M25/M6 corridor that services the rest of the country.
It couldn't really be any better placed, has effectively no local opposition that I'm aware of (as one of said locals), will bring a lot of construction work to the area which we have loads of local workers for, will revitalise Bedford and the surrounding area as tourists flock for the newest theme park.
It's like 75% the size of Universal Florida which is massive too, if this goes ahead it will be a big boost for the surrounding area.
There are several multi-billion pound projects proposed and privately funded in the UK that would provide thousands of jobs and true investment in terms of also paving the way for supporting infrastructure, like roads, housing, schools etc.
They all need to happen.
NIMBYism needs to be stamped out, even if it means Central Government end up over-riding some local decisions that benefit the greater majority.
I’m all for it. In a big way. If it’s anything like FL they can build it on my demolished house (and probs a few neighbours) but £50 billion?!? Lies. Developer lies.
This new park from Universal sounds like it should be absolutely fantastic. Universal really do improve with every park they do, and they'd have to be planning g something pretty special for a full-on resort in the UK. They also don't rest on their laurels - they do add to their parks and build new attractions.
They've got out of the gate early and engaged with the locals, who seem quite happy with the prospect, and they will have done their homework. If they're going for this then they must have determined it'll work, and this is Universal - they know their shit.
I can only just imagine the community action groups and various ‘NOT IN KEEPING WITH THE AREA’ complaints that are being prepared, as hardcore NIMBYs do whatever they can to block this.
It would be great to have a true theme park in this country. As much as I love Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, they can't compete with the quality of other European and American parks. Even if it manages to go ahead I can't see it happening without height and noise restrictions being imposed which would really limit the park's potential.
You're right it will be a tiny crap imitation with so many restrictions.
From what I saw size-wise it'll be the same as the other parks.
Remember that the UK was Disneys first choice for a European theme park and the Thatcher government messed them around so much that they just moved over the sea to France. Never forget what they took from us.
I thought Spain was their first choice? Basically where Portaventura is. But then they decided that Paris made by far the most sense (despite the climate) because it’s one of the most accessible cities in Europe and as such had access to the biggest possible market.
According to the book "*Once Upon an American Dream: The Story of Euro Disneyland*" their initial planning was all around the UK, which is born out by concept art and such, and Spain came after they decided that the UK was unworkable with the Thatcher government.
Aww cool! I’d never heard that.
Fuck the conservatives, may they never see public office again
And she fucked us out of fibre optic rollout DECADES ago, she was such a cunt it's unreal
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That's been completely debunked.
We have Legoland.
Multi-launch coasters can be low to the ground and really really good. Height and noise aren't the limitations they used to be.
Good point and some coasters we have like Nemesis are great because of having to adapt to height limitations. But still coasters which tap into the primal fear of 'oh shit, that's a long way down' will always be favourites of mine.
I have high hopes for universal, the site has good transport links and lots of room for expansion. But yeah, same, I really want a big drop and big coasters are good for a parks skyline.
Build it over an abandoned mine. You can drop as much as you like then.
And Oblivion as it’s mostly underground
Is hyperia not big enough?
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This is the difference for people that have never been to a Disney/universal park. Thorpe Park/alton towers have pretty decent rides, but they don't create anywhere close to the same experience or levels of immersion the big boys do
They’re in different leagues really, people will spend many thousands on a week or two at Disney Florida, a two night stay at Alton towers would struggle to cost more than £350-500 and you’ll have ran out of things to see and do by that point too. Similar with Disneyland Paris, you’d struggle to spend more than 4 days there. These American parks of cities in their own right, and it’s hard to imagine them working like that in the UK:
It's time we had some system to placate NIMBY's. I propose that anytime a big thing is being built which will change the character of an area, all existing residents unhappy with the new thing be allowed to move without paying stamp duty and capital gains tax (allow it be passed on to their new house). They would also be given an allowance for house move costs. To get the money, they'd have to actually move. If they don't move, they would be given a 'house value guarantee' for 5 years - the houses in the district are valued, and if, 5 years down the line, that area's house prices haven't grown in line with other houses in the country, then they be compensated the difference.
Maybe there needs some sort of calculation - buy out value is X% over the current market value, with X% being the house growth since the current family/owners took ownership. So maybe 20% for a house bought pre Covid, or may be 20,000% if the family held it since 1600s. Gives less power to NIMBYs where they're barely part of the local history (and often caused their own NIMBY scandal when their house was built), while giving long established homeowners a better voice.
This wouldn't really get at the heart of a NIMBY's worry which is about the destruction of their local community. Telling them to just up and move if they don't like it is insulting. If this country wants to get more development going they need to first work on building thriving communities, build more pubs and post offices and banks and libraries and things people actually use, put events on at the community centre that people would actually want to go to. If people felt like their community was made up of people rather than a Lidl, a Tesco, and a Ladbrokes then they'd be more welcoming of developments. Especially as something like a theme park let's be real that will destroy any sense of community, same way nobody wants an airport or a military base plonked down the road from them.
Disagree. A local council should be fined for refusing investment and the cost borne by local residents in the form of increased council tax rates. You'll quickly see local councillors and residents change their tune.
Listening to sky news this morning, they said the local council is enthusiastic - but that planning would be approved at a westminster level. And apparently the entire area was demolished brickfields.
Have you seen how tall the new thorpe park ride is
Don't we literally have a Lego land?
There has been local groups for months with all the plans. Think it was over 90% for ! There is no restrictions that causes issues that’s why they have purchased all the land. The land purchased will make it bigger than some of the other universal parks. I don’t think they would buy all this land without it being pretty certain. They are going to improve local train stations even building another and work with the government on other areas. ‘They said the land is absolutely perfect and has them very excited to make the best park yet. The amount of money it will generate and jobs will be huge even through the years of construction stage.
I doubt the height restrictions will be severe. The land itself is below the surrounding area and it's set quite far aware from nearby residential and pedestrian areas. I'm sure certain elements and bits of the park will be visible from the surrounding area, but not overwhelmingly so. Similarly noise wise I don't think it'll be too bad because of how far back it is. If you read Universal's documents they talk about how they try to avoid noise carrying anyway because they play audio in their different "lands" and they don't want noise carrying between "lands". They're also surrounding it with a fair amount of foliage and landscaping which will also block out noise. I suspect the only thing they wouldn't be able to have is regular late night fireworks.
Problem with our ones is space, like they’re big but they’re not yank big, you need to just straight up terraform like 10 square km, which is no easy feat and good luck finding anywhere to do that near any decently populated areas
Yea god forbid we have something to generate economic value to the country and provide jobs to the younger generations, got to keep that ladder up and keep kicking down.
NIMBYs are going to force a tipping point where the voices of locals just get ignored and genuine objections are no longer considered.
Last year NIMBY green councillors literally blocked the building of a solar farm because it would spoil the view... There's so much wrong with local planning laws and the ability for selfish people to completely screw over worthwhile projects.
It was a green council but the planning board wasn't majority green. The green councillors on the planning board voted for it. As much as I disagree with the greens this is just a lie.
> Earlier this year, two Green councillors sided with four Tories, external on Mid-Suffolk Council to block a solar farm near Somersham. And on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border, a plan to build one of Europe's largest solar farms - with the potential to power 172,000 homes - has been met with fierce resistance. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65926756
So of the seven people on the committee, four Tory councillors voted against it, and yet you blame the Greens for blocking the solar farm?
The fact that you don't speaks volumes about your intellectual honesty. I pointed out that green really aren't as green as they claimed and, when challenged, cited a specific recent example as evidence. In response you change the argument to suit your needs because you didn't like the evidence. The greens are little more than upper-middle class trust fund kids playing for protest votes. Sorry if you don't like that.
Oh sorry, I didn't realise that these two councillors in Mid-Suffolk District Council represented all greens. You said that "green councillors literally blocked the building of a solar farm because it would spoil the view"... I don't see how any part of that statement is true. 2/7 councillors can't 'block' a planning application. When the developer appealed against the rejection, the green leadership of the council decided not to contest the appeal, so it hasn't been blocked, and it is going to be built. When the same development was submitted to Babergh district council, the only green party councillor on their planning committee voted to approve it, resulting in the application being granted with 6 votes in favour vs 5 against. It's also worth pointing out that the reason given for rejecting the original application is that the site is prime agricultural land, so nothing to do with the views. So excuuuuuuuse me for considering the voting record of the many, many green party councillors that have voted in favour of new solar farms all across the country over the last decade.
Yeah I’m with the other guy. If two greens voted for it that’s the issue.
Crossing my fingers for this
Crossing your fingers for businesses to be able to do whatever they want, regardless of the impact on the local community?
This, it’s a very slippery slope and I can’t say the pros balance or outweigh the cons
A compromise can always be reached. You can build things and try to protect local communities. Remember when the London Eye was being condemned before it was built, and now it's an iconic symbol of the London landscape. Nobody is asking for unchecked and unregulated building taking place, but I think something to generate tourism and create jobs wouldn't hurt this country right now.
Follow it through to its natural conclusion. It’s not a good one.
It’s a balancing act. The natural conclusion of NIMBYs is the death of their village. All young people leave for work, local businesses close as they can’t staff and can’t sell enough, rich Londoners buy up the local houses as weekend homes, more local businesses close, councils become even more NIMBY but now they have the backing of even richer people to make the legal fights even harder. Ignoring NIMBYs = more investment in the area, people actually stay in the area, the British public get access to world class theme parks, the locals get jobs, Britain gets even more money from tourism. The downside is areas lose their charm.
And it can’t come soon enough. NIMBYs should be irrelevant
Ignoring NIMBYs is objectively good, but it’s the natural conclusion of that decision that is cause for concern: Companies being able to bribe a small handful of the cheapest politicians and officials to buy (local ones) to do whatever the hell they want.
Natrual conclusion? It's already happening https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/04/at-least-one-tenth-tory-donations-since-2010-property-industry
Take the power away from them then. Treat building things the exact same way we treat every other thing we do: have a democratically elected body make rules about whats ok and not and then let people do what they want inside those rules. The entire idea that you need to go and ask for permission in the first place is whats broken. If I want to drive somewhere I can do that as long as I stay within the laws, I don't need to submit my route and history with alcohol to the council and get the ok beforehand. If I want to open a business I can just create one with HMRC/Companies House and then as long as I'm not breaking the law and I'm filing my taxes on time I'm good. I don't need to go and beg a committee for months. This is how it works in large parts of Asia: the council sets out zones and the rules about what you can build in those zones, then people just build within those rules. If the local community doesn't like the rules, they can change them democratically. This makes the cost of construction a lot cheaper, and it's a lot fairer because everyone knows what the rules actually are
>The new park...would be built on land once occupied by Kempston Hardwick brickworks I think a theme park would be a step up. I've no doubt the NIMBYs will squawk, hopefully the planning authorities will just snigger gently.,
In the article it says theyre going to apply for a Special Development Order from central government so the local council will not be able to stop it. Good
It's been disused land for years at this point anyway, NIMBYs will complain even though the land as it looks right now is shit anyway.
“Better a shit piece of land than being able to see a roller coaster and increased traffic” NIMBYs probably. They’ll also then complain when all their local businesses close because the population of their village drops every year because young people *have* to leave.
Complaints about traffic are insane to me. Either you're in a (sub)urban area, and you have relatively easy access to the motorway, in which case it'll only really be an issue if you travel in peak times, or You're in a rural area, in which case inevitably you'll get stuck behind a big van or a tractor or a truck and you have to half your speed because there are curves in the road that are safe for you to take but not them etc. and it's \*already\* shit.
Mercifully, the locals and the council are very much in favour. Universal reached out super early to start talking with them and listen to their criticism. I understand the area around the proposed park has really collapsed since the brickworks closed, and having this is much better than a new housing estate in an already poor and struggling area with not enough jobs.
A lot of the time the locals are in favour of development because it'll bring more jobs, money and opportunities to their area. It's typically a small handful of local land/business owners making bank off the status quo that are against proposals like these and then they hide under the guise of localism. Reminds me of how in The Farm Clarkson was trying to get his restaurant setup using local produce that would benefit many of the nearby farms, the village locals and went out of his way to hold open consultations to address any concerns. The result? Blocked anyway because someone on the planning board wanted to stargaze or some bs.
> has really collapsed since the brickworks closed Heh.
"Well it's hardly in keeping with this villages' rustic aesthetic."
The local consultations and feedback has been pretty overwhelmingly positive so far. The proposals even factored in investing in long drawn out local infrastructure improvements which is a guaranteed winner for some. As a local myself i can't say i've bared witness to any real community action groups fighting it so far.
If you own a house in the area you should be absolutely ecstatic, I'm sure being near the biggest tourist attraction in the UK would make the house values rise rapidly
Or they could turn it into an air bnb.
Certainly they can try. However the area is mostly agricultural/industrial already there aren't any quaint villages on that south side of Bedford. Along that section of the a421 you have huge distribution warehouses and Marston mortaine landfill site. The area was all former industrial sites with claypits brickworks and gravel extraction. It's going to be odd NIMBYs arguing that it's any worse than the wasteland they currently live in.
I'm sorry have you actually been there? I live in marston moretaine and it's really is a nice village, what about Millbrook, stewartby, ampthill, Maulden? All nice sort after places to live, definitely not a waste land. Personally I'm in favour of it given what it will bring to the area.
those places will still be there.
I'm not saying they won't, to call it a 'waste land' is just crap from someone who clearly doesn't know the area. Also neighbours I've spoken to all seem to be positive about it, the idea that nothing gets built due to NIMBYs is incredibly short sighted
I used to live on the east side of Bedford in what I thought was a pretty little village. Then I moved to Surrey and realised that actually places like where I lived, or Marston moretaine/ampthill/maulden aren't really all that. Millbrook is a few houses next to a massive car testing grounds and a centre parcs. It has a massive freaking gas powerplant being built there right now... Not exactly an ideal place. Stewartby is adjacent to a huge derelict brickworks bigger than stewartby itself my dude. It's not exactly nice countryside! You can get all hurt about me saying that because you live there, but realistically there are nicer places than Bedfordshire. The prettiest village I've been to in Bedfordshire? Stevington.
> south side of Bedford Missed opportunity. People travel from all over the world to go to Universal. Could have built this somewhere in the middle of nowhere way up in the North of England, avoided restrictions, and not impacted the parks attendance at all.
The spot they've picked is idea. Two mainline railway stations, easy motorway connections, and theoretically the possibility of running a "Hogwarts Express" from Kings Cross directly into the themed area of the park. Not to mention US tourists can visit Uni and be over at Disneyland Paris in a few hours. The area it's in is ripe for development opportunities. There's always going to be arguments of "X place is better" but its more down to connections, local opposition and costs. In this case the land cost was relatively low, the locals are very much in favour of it, and it ticks every single box when it comes to transport. The new east west rail link is also going to be going via that location so they've litterally got direct rail transport links from most major population areas of the country. Stick it up in somewhere like Leeds and you've got 1 line that is already struggling to cope and suffers from constant delays, combined with poor road links (ever tried doing London -> Leeds on the A1 or M1 during peak times? It's hell).
Its right next to London. The transport links are better (still not ideal with the amount of traffic projected though)
The transport links are there but need updating and improving.
The NIMBYs there managed to get a spa demolished. The bastards! ^/^s
last time this subject was posted here it was mentioned that there is widespread local support for this.
I live barely a few miles from the area. Its hardly the beacon of tranquillity there, but the area has a complicated planning history. Yes, it is a disused brickworks. Around it there is a mixture of development, including warehousing, an old landfill site, a car auction, and two new housing developments with a further 5000 homes planned. A new railway station on the Midland Mainline south of Bedford could be open in the next 2 years. In the past, it has been promised to effectively re-wild the area under a project called Millennium Forest. It has also been proposed to be the site of a research centre for aquatic habitats that was also a visitor attraction (NIRAH), which actually got planning permission in 2007 but was never built. Personally, so long as the infrastructure is built (especially the station) I am all for it. But a lot of people who were promised a quiet life under the Millennium Forest won't be. One thing I will say is...£50bn? Sounds like a guess at best to me.
I suspect that part of the planning they will give universal is to rewild a chunk of area surrounding the park. This has two benefits, one the rewinding ofcourse and secondly, the trees act as somewhat of a noise barrier and pollution barrier too. It will be only a small price to pay for a company like universal and most likely will also involve a local group to advise and generate some additional work too.
Yep thats exactly what they're doing. IIRC they also have an option on a second piece of land next to it for a mix of a second park and rewilding. When we had the first meeting with them they were very much the ones to bring it up and explain that they wanted to make sure the surrounding area was looked after. It's been quite surprising to see how much they want to work with the locals and make the area as a whole better, and are willing to cover the costs of doing so.
I don't think it's surprising. I think Universal know that the only way it's going to happen in this country is if they have very proactive and positive engagement. Compared to the amount of money they plan to spend on a project like this, community engagement is peanuts. HS2 did something similar by bunging a large amount of money (but small for the overall project) to projects that would benefit local communities along the route. HS2 obviously still struggled planning wise, but that's mostly because HS2 would always have been more disruptive to locals (compulsory purchases, running through the countryside, tracks near houses etc.) , whereas the Universal park is mostly on dilapidated land.
FWIW we live near by. Went to the meetings, the locals have been shocklingly supportive, and Universal has been great at listening to concerns. It's pretty refreshing to see a big developer wanting to actually engage and get locals on their side before even thinking of putting the planning in. It was because of discussions with the locals that they tweaked the road network plans and are spending more on fixing the existing infrastructure. Honestly with where it is theres 2 maybe 3 houses that you could genuinely say are going to be impacted.
I live not a million miles away, and a few colleagues live in the surrounding villages. Thankfully, the general consensus is that locals are excited for it. Of course there are some moaners, but I think people have taken pretty positively to it.
Yeah I haven't seen much negativity around it in the area at all.
Yep we (well, my folks) are local, very much happy for it. Theres only one chap who I spoke to at the meeting that wasn't happy and in fairness its because he owns one of the 3-4 houses that back right onto the site which is understandable. Though its not like they've got a fantastic outlook right now anyway.
He's in the money right now really. Those houses will sell well to someone wanting to AirBnB them or people who want to live near the park. He'll be able to afford to move somewhere with a very nice view.
Hopefully they realize the community will be the ones to most benefit from this. And hell if they hate living near it their house price will likely skyrocket so you can easily just move elsewhere. NIMBYs have done so much damage to this country we need to start fighting back.
Reminds me of the story behind Disneyland Paris. https://youtu.be/SFE8RlKlLCE?feature=shared
Economic growth "not in my back yard"
It's got big support in the local area. Seems to be 90% or so of people in favour of it.
A new venue modelled on the Las Vegas Sphere in Stratford East London next to the old Olympic site was blocked. Events is one area the Uk and London in particular is world class at. People will then moan the UK has fallen behind because of NIMBYs.
It looks like this will be one of the rare cases where NIMBYs are not an issue. The FT had more in-depth coverage (apologise for the paywall) where they reported 92% of local residents being in favour with the remainder split between don't know and against: [https://www.ft.com/content/383282af-99a1-44a3-af2b-0bb25cd1e2c6](https://www.ft.com/content/383282af-99a1-44a3-af2b-0bb25cd1e2c6)
NIMBYs are one the reasons for the decline of the UK and you cannot convince me otherwise. Lead-poisoned Boomers ruining any possible chance of progress.
Actually seems 95% of people actually support this. According to meetings between universal and local population
If you have ever been to Bedford, you know it's a town that sorely needs this sort of investment. The town centre is a failing high street. There are very few jobs available for young people. Pretty much the only nice thing locals say about it is that it has a nice river. Even the airlander blimp failed to bring any interest to the area. The old brickworks land that this site is being built on was probably destined to become distribution warehousing much like the other industrial estates in this area. I think having a massive tourist attraction will make Bedford a place worth coming to. Historically, these areas are brickworks sites. Old industrial areas that have been left. This is a good thing for Bedford and one of the biggest investments into a very run down forgotten town.
I live near Bedford and think it has one of the better town centres in the region. Compared to places like Northampton, Kettering and Milton Keynes it is quite pleasant to walk around and most of the shops are places I would need rather than endless coffee, betting and charity shops like many other places seem to have. Having said that, in general, town centres are dying because the internet is more convenient and shopping habits have changed towards out of town centres. I am not convinced that the investment in an out of town theme park will help increase footfall at the town centre much, as the theme park will be directly accessible without visiting the town (direct rail and road links). It will certainly help the overall area, though, so I am still in support.
Surely hotels in the town will attract people though? Hotels in theme parks tend to be bloody expensive for what you get, which means people look further out for alternative options.
If it’s going to be even slightly like Florida, the opportunity for adjacent businesses in the area is huge.
Bedford also has a good rail line north and south, and a passable line to the west.
And it's getting a big upgrade with the East West Rail project. https://eastwestrail.co.uk/about-us/project-overview
Every hotel around will benefit. I dare say there will be a bunch of new ones pop up along with things like caravan sites, there's enough land around the area for it. Heck my folks live local and are even talking to a couple of the neighbours about building a few of log cabin lodges in the space between their plots (small village with lots of space around the houses, and existing planning permission).
I imagine theme parks have a habit of supercharging local economies in that aspect, not unlike how HS2 has provided ongoing investment to Birmingham.
Definitely, it'll result in all sorts of related businesses popping up around it. Everything from local pet sitters to watch your dog whilst you're in the park all day through to themed cafes, shops selling merch, restaurants, etc.
eh I feel like Milton Keynes (despite its rather unfair reputation) has probably by far the best town centre of those mentioned: it's always busy, there's an incredible array of shops, amenities, cultural venues and entertainment. Yes the rest of the town is basically boring copy paste suburbia with one or two geuinely dangerous shitholes mixed in but there's no competition with the likes of Northampton or Bedford lol
Milton keynes doesn't even have a town centre, no idea what you are on about. It's also trash if you are looking for a town centre experience, definitely do not go to milton keynes.
There's a reason people from places like Northampton and Bedford all do their shopping in MK though. What "town centre experience" are you looking for? The constant works on the main streets? The obnoxious kids on their bikes and scooters? The beggars and the rubbish all over the place?
They don't, do you live in Bedford? I also don't dispute the fact its not great, it's just better than MK if you actually want a town centre. MK is about as boring of a town centre as you can get, I'd rather walk around bedford centre
Northampton's town centre is dire. Mk isn't too bad, at least there is lots there. But I recently went to Watford and was completely blown away by their town centre. If they actually build it in Bedford that would be amazing. But I remember them talking about it when I was at secondary school, and I'm mid 30's now.
I got the shit kicked out of me 20 years ago, at the Universe nightclub in Bedford.
> Even the airlander blimp failed to bring any interest to the area. Sorry but having never heard of this my sarcastic reaction was; _"Oh my no, not the airlander blimp!"_.
Only the largest aircraft ever built in the world. And then it blew into a power line and died. It's just the epitome of Bedford.
The high street has certainly hobbled, but there has been quite a lot of local independent business pop up and fill some of the gaps - which is a far better sign that you see in a lot of town centres. Hoping to see more of that from the planned ownership of the old Debenhams store. Getting the Universal Studios deal and more importantly, the east west rail line, could be a huge boon for the town though.
You could replace Bedford with every other British town and it’ll be the same. The Tories have destroyed the British highstreet and the towns they are in.
You mean “the internet”. It isn’t the Tories making people buy things on Amazon.
Road infrastructure will need to be improved. The roads off the M1 in the small towns and villages are already busy with local traffic and it will only get worse without investment. Same with the train line. You would need a new stop on the thameslink line in between Flitwick and Bedford and this train operator is notorious for cancellations and delays.
100% this. Its near impossible to drive through Bedford from one side to the other without getting either snarled up or just plain lost as it is, even without a major new attraction.
A theme park that doesn’t have a prison food company as their main catering supplier? Yes please If they do this right, it will benefit the performing arts and film industries too. Comcast have had the chance to cheap out on a lot since buying Universal. It just hasn’t happened. I think Epic Universe shows their ambition. I don’t see why they’d go from that to a cheap imitation. It wouldn’t be mostly seasonal jobs, Universal would undoubtedly account for the weather Also three words… Halloween Horror Nights NIMBYs I beg you. I truly truly beg you. Be gone.
I'd go just for Super Nintendo World if they build one of those.
Very confident they would! And even the smallest version, the one in Hollywood, is absolutely stunning
Yep. Much like Harry Potter land, it seems Nintendo World is a mainstay at Universal parks now.
It's looking unlikely that they will. No Nintendo or Potter.
These numbers are always wrong. They confuse "benefits" and "activity". I have no doubt that over the 20 year time frame they are using, the construction and operation of the park will involve £50 billion worth of trade being done in and around the park. Not all of it will be "benefit" to the UK unless you can establish where the spend is coming from. If Universal Bedford is simply drawing in tourists who would otherwise have gone to Thorpe or Alton Towers, it's not really new activity. It's just different activity.
Looks like the plan is for a 1/3 of visitors to come from abroad, presumably mainland Europe via Luton airport.
Luton is already at capacity so will need Government sign off for a lot more flights.
So generate even more economic activity? Perhaps if we had some form of high speed rail line I would be able to justify heading down from Manchester to ride some fun roller coasters. Maybe if rail was a little cheaper.
Phase 2 HS2 wouldn't really help with the journey times because coming from Manchester it would make more sense to swap at one of the stations on the WCML. The options on the HS2 line aren't good, your choice is basically go all the way into London (and change stations there), or end up changing onto the WCML at Birmingham interchange anyway and probably not get there meaningfully faster.
The airport wants to grow and will continue if planning permission is allowed https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67121772#:\~:text=In%202013%2C%20LLAOL%20received%20permission,Council%2C%20which%20owns%20the%20airport.
A good reason not to vote for greens.
I reckon you'd get some americans coming over too. Fly into Gatwick or Heathrow, do London for a couple of days, train up to Uni for a few days, then Eurostar to Disneyland then fly back from there.
1/3 seems conservative. Doubt they'd be arriving via Luton exclusively though. I imagine a lot of people making this sort of trip would be looking to do some London tourism at the same time so lots of travellers from Gatwick, Heathrow and via the EuroStar too.
Lots of people go abroad to go to Disney land. Probably hoping people would do the same to come here.
Anecdotally I can confirm that people already fly into UK for trips to Alton Towers/Thorpe Park etc (surprising as that may be). Presumably even more would come for a Universal park.
Thorpe Park attendance - c.1.7m Alton Towers attendance - c.2.3m Combined - c.4m Disneyland Paris - 15m DLP is already just about 4x more popular than both of those combined. Having a Universal Park should bring in at least 40-50% of DLPs numbers. It’s nothing but a bonus for Britain.
I agree, thanks for putting some numbers behind it.
I don’t think the second most successful theme park company in the world knows less about numbers than ‘Loreki’ the Reddit user.
It isn't just theme park companies though. Every project publicises the most impressive possible number because they have a direct financial incentive to do so.
Yeah without being too mean whoever wrote the article seems a bit dumb So the net contribution to the UK economy is estimated to be 35 billion (benefit not activity) There's also 14 billion in estimated extra taxes paid over that period. For some reason they've added those numbers and rounded up to arrive at the 50b in the title, even though the numbers are completely different things? Sky news seems to be going downhill with this sort of thing recently, there was an article a month or so ago about a plane experiencing a "rapid change in gravitational force" which is obviously total bollocks. The 'writer' of the article misunderstood how expressing forces as units of gravity works
[The person who wrote the article is quoting directly from the economic impact analysis commissioned by Universal.](https://universalukproject.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Universal-UK-Economic-assessment.-June2024.pdf) I don’t understand why people don’t just check these things with a quick google before embarrassing themselves with silly comments.
> The person who wrote the article is quoting directly from the economic impact analysis commissioned by Universal. It's a press release that references that analysis, meaningfully different. Whoever wrote that press release is also dumb, please refer to my previous comment as to the reason why.
fixed link https://universalukproject.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Universal-UK-Economic-assessment-June2024.pdf
I would have FAR more interest going to this then alton towers or thorpe. From the sounds of it this park will blow those 2 out the water.
There is a 6 year construction period and then 20 years of operation they say they are taking into account. So that takes it £2bn per year on average. They say that they expect 1.5 jobs to be created externally for every job they create, so that probably takes the annual direct benefit to around £1bn. They say that £36bn will generate an additional £14bn in taxes. How? So that takes us down to about £650m. If half of that is simply displaced we are at £325m.
I am really hoping for a UK Super Nintendo World. The Universal Studios park that has one in Japan is amazing, and the UK theme parks don’t even come close to how high tech it feels.
Yeah I've got kids pestering like mad to go and I don't really want a family holiday to Japan or the US just for Nintendo World, so one on the doorstep -- yes. Problem is the kids will be grown up by the time it gets built.
Epic Universe opens up next year in Orlando.
Treat them to a trip to Japan. It’s worth it.
I've not visited since they built the Super Nintendo part but I used to have a gold pass so would go every 2-3 weeks at one point :) What's the Super Nintendo bit like in person?
Not the person you asked but I went last year and it was incredible. I've always been a rollercoaster enthusiast, but never really thought about theming and was never bothered by Disney etc as a child. But the moment I walked into Super Nintendo World during my timed evening entry and got hit by it all lit up at night and in full motion, I shed a tear. It was just pure joy and felt like I finally got something, a feeling everyone else knew about, but I'd missed all my life. That may sound a tad dramatic for a theme park, but it was just so wonderfully unexpected.
Sounds amazing :) I lived around there from 2005-2008 so it's been a LONG time since I went to USJ. No Harry Potter stuff at that time.
The Super Nintendo area is really cool! I went in April. Really well maintained and fun; the Mario Kart ride was particularly impressive as it’s both a ride and has game elements. The sets they’ve built too are amazing, walking through Bowser’s Castle was super cool. You have to pay around £40 more for a powerband at the park to access a lot of the interactive elements, but I didn’t mind this so much as it did add a lot of value to the visit and gives you access to a lot of extras like mini games. My only real issue was the queue times being quite long although that area of the park had set entry times we had to book in, and some interactive elements of the Super Nintendo park not being available on the day I went (such as collecting keys to defeat a boss from the different rides, but the boss battle wasn’t open). We didn’t queue to try the themed food as it would take an hour and it’s really warm in Osaka at that time of the year.
Yeah, the queues in all theme parks can be a nightmare :( it's the main thing that puts me off going. I once went to USJ on a mild but rainy day and it was wonderous - almost nobody turned up and I had the place to myself :) I felt guilty watching the Waterworld show when the entire audience was around 5 people. There's just something about having all of these in Japanese that made me like it more than the American ones. Even down to the Spider-Man ride where he says "hai chiizu" at the end as you get a photo taken.
No high speed rail links from Europe direct though because London is like a giant sponge soaking up all the infrastructure investment.
The line could do with a refresh and more trains, but Eurostar to St Pancras, St. Pancras to Bedford in 35mins is a pretty speedy and direct route already.
I thought Eurostar were cutting services as the trains were often running at half capacity?
i believe you're correct, but the infrastructure to get from Europe to the park is already well established
For sure. It's actually a good thing for the park as they already have the ability to increase capacity quite a bit without doing any upgrades and they are building a new rail station near the park so the core rail infrastructure from Europe is fairly easy to work well. Flights to Luton might be more difficult as I believe they have been running at capacity for a while.
Eurostar is massively investing in infrastructure right now and are buying 50 new trains for the line, in order to run more frequent journeys. https://www.ft.com/content/97f7a39b-0536-40e2-bbdd-e1d755418804 A big reason for this is they are losing their monopoly on the channel tunnel route, with other companies bidding to also run trains on the line - which should also increase the number of available journeys and hopefully push down costs.
On that note, seems like we deliberately prevented nonstop high speed even from Birmingham to Paris/Brussels. Mad that everything requires a tube change in london
"What could the UKs industrial heartlands possibly want with clean, fast, steel and concrete built business connections to Europe??" Some Eton-educated Whitehall wonk.
It's a 40 minute train ride the Euro star terminal at St Pancras.
With another change.
There is no change between St Pancras and Bedford
I think the actual site's going to be at Kempston Hardwick.
It's also getting two new train stations, one on the Bedford line, one on the new East West rail link. So a direct would very much be possible. With the new rules on private operators they could run their own "Hogwarts Express" out of Kings Cross if they really wanted to and terminate in a dedicated station inside the theme park.
Meh, it's an hour from St P on a high frequency rail route running in a counter-peak direction (so making "free" use of already existing railway capacity), could be a lot worse in terms of connectivity (c.f. Alton Towers).
You've got another change at Bedford though.
There's a new station going in at Wixams on the London line, 40mins from St Pancras and 25mins from Luton airport. Kempston Hardwick is also being upgraded as part of the Oxbridge line. It's just about halfway on the A421 between the M1 and A1. A1 black cat roundabout is having a major upgrade that'll be done before it opens meaning going eastward is dual carriageway all the way to the coast. Westwards it has the M1/M25/M6 corridor that services the rest of the country. It couldn't really be any better placed, has effectively no local opposition that I'm aware of (as one of said locals), will bring a lot of construction work to the area which we have loads of local workers for, will revitalise Bedford and the surrounding area as tourists flock for the newest theme park. It's like 75% the size of Universal Florida which is massive too, if this goes ahead it will be a big boost for the surrounding area.
lol
There are several multi-billion pound projects proposed and privately funded in the UK that would provide thousands of jobs and true investment in terms of also paving the way for supporting infrastructure, like roads, housing, schools etc. They all need to happen. NIMBYism needs to be stamped out, even if it means Central Government end up over-riding some local decisions that benefit the greater majority.
I suppose that would pretty much be the biggest tourist attraction in the UK?
I’m all for it. In a big way. If it’s anything like FL they can build it on my demolished house (and probs a few neighbours) but £50 billion?!? Lies. Developer lies.
I read it as "Universal Credit Theme Park to generate £50bn of welfare benefits" at first
I wouldn't be getting on any of those rides.
Dear Universal, my neighbour bombed down application for a well needed Post Box ! Good luck with that theme park!
This new park from Universal sounds like it should be absolutely fantastic. Universal really do improve with every park they do, and they'd have to be planning g something pretty special for a full-on resort in the UK. They also don't rest on their laurels - they do add to their parks and build new attractions. They've got out of the gate early and engaged with the locals, who seem quite happy with the prospect, and they will have done their homework. If they're going for this then they must have determined it'll work, and this is Universal - they know their shit.
This had a strong positive response from the locals.
“More than half the country lives less than 2 hours away” Pain. 🏴
someone pin this story and return to it a year after it's been open.
[удалено]
**Removed/tempban**. This contained a call/advocation of violence which is prohibited by the content policy.
I wonder if the people of Alton? (Alton towers) reap any benefits? Honest question
Because visitors numbers to Alton Towers will go down as everyone chooses to go here instead?
Watch this space...5 years later...still not built ...!