- Dec 28, 2023
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Universal Great Britain
- Thread starter AlexanderMBush
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- Jan 2, 2024
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No guys, Doug is right. They're not going ahead with UGB and are purchasing Portaventura instead.
What's the point in purchasing Portaventura. It didn't work then and it won't work now.
- Jan 30, 2024
- 56
- 138
Thought it would be handy to look back at some snippets and summarise....
The previous mayor of Bedford says Universal first approached the Council in 2022 (nearly two years ago). Page Thompson, of Universal, let slip that he has been working on this for over two years and spending a lot of time here. So Universal have already invested considerable time, money and effort in this proposal. Also, this news only came out very recently, which shows how good Universal have been at keeping things close to their chest and controlling information.
In the last UK Budget, it was announced that the EWR project to Bedford was being brought forward for earlier completion
A recent planning application for warehousing near J13 of the M1 mentions improvements to the J13 layout.
Wixams railway station development seems to have moved forward after a period of stagnation.
There have been recent signs of the Kempston Hardwick bridge project progressing, despite no other apparent planned work on any other road crossings on that line.
At least two local hotels are already expanding on the assumption this is going to happen.
Luton Airport are in the process of planning expansion with a new terminal and have already build an automated link to the mainline railway.
In the FT article, Page Thompson states that is is almost impossible to find a large area of land suitable to build a theme park in the UK
"Thompson did not comment on where else in Europe the company had looked but said the Bedford site was the only one that would work for Universal in the UK, owing to its size, flatness and location in the country. “It's not easy to find hundreds of acres of land in England to build a resort,” he said."
All in all there are lots of positive signs. The downside is the underlying statements, made in various interviews and articles, including the FT, that this may well now be in the Governments hands, as they will need to ensure certain infrastructure projects are delivered. This is most likely to be the A421 spur road, the final delivery of Wixams railway station, further potential improvement to J13 of the M1, progression of EWR and the A1/A421 improvements. Many of these are in progress already, apart from the A421 spur but there is the distinct feeling that if the Government do not get on board with some investment and financial incentive then this might not happen.
The current mayor of Bedford put the odds at probably over 60/40 that it will go ahead, which is far from certain, but definitely in the right direction, and he would have been managing expectations.
So fingers crossed, things are looking positive, and clearly some infrastructure is already in progress, but it looks as if this will be in the hands of the next Government from July. Personally, I think they would be daft not to support something that will bring in a lot of tourism and investment. When Taylor Swift visits, most of the money raised goes back with her to the States and it generates little overall additional economic benefit to the UK, apart from a local blip for hotels and restaurants. With this project there will be big economic benefits to the UK and money will be coming into the country long term from tourists.
Just a few idle thoughts while I was idling away my morning. All opinions are my own
The previous mayor of Bedford says Universal first approached the Council in 2022 (nearly two years ago). Page Thompson, of Universal, let slip that he has been working on this for over two years and spending a lot of time here. So Universal have already invested considerable time, money and effort in this proposal. Also, this news only came out very recently, which shows how good Universal have been at keeping things close to their chest and controlling information.
In the last UK Budget, it was announced that the EWR project to Bedford was being brought forward for earlier completion
A recent planning application for warehousing near J13 of the M1 mentions improvements to the J13 layout.
Wixams railway station development seems to have moved forward after a period of stagnation.
There have been recent signs of the Kempston Hardwick bridge project progressing, despite no other apparent planned work on any other road crossings on that line.
At least two local hotels are already expanding on the assumption this is going to happen.
Luton Airport are in the process of planning expansion with a new terminal and have already build an automated link to the mainline railway.
In the FT article, Page Thompson states that is is almost impossible to find a large area of land suitable to build a theme park in the UK
"Thompson did not comment on where else in Europe the company had looked but said the Bedford site was the only one that would work for Universal in the UK, owing to its size, flatness and location in the country. “It's not easy to find hundreds of acres of land in England to build a resort,” he said."
All in all there are lots of positive signs. The downside is the underlying statements, made in various interviews and articles, including the FT, that this may well now be in the Governments hands, as they will need to ensure certain infrastructure projects are delivered. This is most likely to be the A421 spur road, the final delivery of Wixams railway station, further potential improvement to J13 of the M1, progression of EWR and the A1/A421 improvements. Many of these are in progress already, apart from the A421 spur but there is the distinct feeling that if the Government do not get on board with some investment and financial incentive then this might not happen.
The current mayor of Bedford put the odds at probably over 60/40 that it will go ahead, which is far from certain, but definitely in the right direction, and he would have been managing expectations.
So fingers crossed, things are looking positive, and clearly some infrastructure is already in progress, but it looks as if this will be in the hands of the next Government from July. Personally, I think they would be daft not to support something that will bring in a lot of tourism and investment. When Taylor Swift visits, most of the money raised goes back with her to the States and it generates little overall additional economic benefit to the UK, apart from a local blip for hotels and restaurants. With this project there will be big economic benefits to the UK and money will be coming into the country long term from tourists.
Just a few idle thoughts while I was idling away my morning. All opinions are my own
Local coverage of progress on the Wixams railway station. Wonder if the theme park requirements are being articulated at this planning stage?
www.bedfordindependent.co.uk
Wixams Station 'on track' says senior officer at Bedford Borough Council - Bedford Independent
The Wixams Railway Station project is continuing to move forward and developers should start making their financial contributions...
www.bedfordindependent.co.uk
Page Thompson has already said that Universal met with the Labour Party, including meeting with Keir Starmer. I’m very confident that a Labour government would give the proposals an equally warm welcome as the outgoing Conservative government. The only two questions for me are whether a new government is happy to invest in the transport infrastructure or expect Universal to make a significant contribution; and whether they wish to continue with a Special Development Order for planning permission.
I expect Labour will be more than willing to continue with the SDO and contribute to the transport infrastructure. The sheer weight of benefits economically that the project will create is such that Labour would be insane to risk turning Universal away by not contributing to the infrastructure. Labour has also historically been more welcoming to projects like this than the Tories and it doesn't seem like the current iteration is any different.
I agree, although with the state of public finances I could easily imagine a hard-nosed and short-sighted Transport Minister holding out for xx% of the cost of the A421 slip road to be paid for by Universal as the only point of that construction would be to get traffic in to the theme park. Let’s hope such negotiations don’t form any kind of stumbling block.
Comcast’s annual shareholders’ meeting takes place in a couple of days time. Wonder if that would be an opportunity for the Comcast Board to notify their shareholders of a proposed investment in a new theme park in the UK?
That's a very good point. I suppose Comcast would be compelled to at least notify the shareholders if they're going to propose an investment of that scale.
I assume that would be the case, at some point in some form. But I have no idea what the reporting requirements would be for a public company like Comcast to notify their shareholders of new investment decisions. Worth noting that while we think a new park in the UK is a major investment (perhaps as much as $10Bn over a number of years), Comcast’s destinations and content investment can be as high as $20Bn per year. A new park certainly isn’t chicken feed to Comcast, but they are used to playing with very large sums of money.
If someone has even one share in Comcast are they entitled to read the minutes of the meeting?
Do we have any solicitors on this board? When I studied the law in 2004 when we went over planning permission my lecturer said that if you get refused planning permission the first thing to do is ask for a judicial review and the council will then grant it. I was told councils don't have permission to refuse planning permission just not grant it which is a different thing.
Do we have any solicitors on this board? When I studied the law in 2004 when we went over planning permission my lecturer said that if you get refused planning permission the first thing to do is ask for a judicial review and the council will then grant it. I was told councils don't have permission to refuse planning permission just not grant it which is a different thing.
Keep in mind they’re good at burying specifics, like when they bought the land it was just listed as future theme park expansion investments in the disclosure. It’s hard to know which disclosure is for what park project around the world, especially when it’s split up over 5+ years and only disclosed a quarter at a time.
- Jan 30, 2024
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Indeed, this is not their first rodeo and they seem to be very competent. I have been pretty impressed at how they have handled things to date, not many companies are that good and professional at what they do.
Yup, especially right now when they're still building Epic, Texas and Vegas HHN.
I would say that I'd be surprised if Universal make an official announcement that they plan to move ahead sine they didn't officially announce VelociCoaster until the track was finished IIRC but they did announce Epic, Texas and Vegas HHN well in advance,
On the subject, I think the biggest thing that could stop USGB is Epic Universe being a financial failure.
Think it’s also fair to say we technically should’ve been in the dark for all of this stuff.
- Feb 19, 2024
- 45
- 126
Universal will want to keep locals on side so will more than likely have a low key announcement via the project website. Even with an SDO there will be another round of public consultations.
On current plans, Bedford Council will not be involved in the planning permission process.
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- Dec 28, 2023
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