Universal Great Britain

[Altonsky]

I think this is the first of three new live action Middle-Earth movies that New Line Cinema have said they wish to make. Plus the War of The Rohirrim animated movie which is being released this coming December.

Well it’s nice that something is happening with the franchise.

I’d hate to think ROP was the last thing they ever did! Haha

 

[xtpower]

Well it’s nice that something is happening with the franchise.

I’d hate to think ROP was the last thing they ever did! Haha

ROP never happened, is never gonna happen and I will never accept it as a thing. Nope, not ever. Everything after the Hobbit ended is just a bad dream and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

[Altonsky]

ROP never happened, is never gonna happen and I will never accept it as a thing. Nope, not ever. Everything after the Hobbit ended is just a bad dream and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I’m just dreading what Amazon has in store for James Bond now they own MGM!!

 

[Dinosaurus]

ROP never happened, is never gonna happen and I will never accept it as a thing. Nope, not ever. Everything after the Hobbit ended is just a bad dream and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Imagine if they did a LOTR land but it was set during ROP

 

[ProjectUniversal]

Manor Road has been closed on and off for 2 days. Not at Kempston Hardwick train station though, it’s further down the road. National Grid are there doing some bits..

It's unrelated. I was talking to the guys yesterday, he said there's a fault somewhere and they have to dig the road to find it.

 

[Chessy]

Ah Thanks!

A few people I know also filled in the survey but didn’t get an email. I couldn’t tell if it was a clever templated email or if it had been tailored very subtly due to its wording.

Interesting.

I think it was general admin but probably tailored slightly. Maybe they didn’t get an email because they didn’t tick correspondence or something like that? I can’t remember if it asked to be honest.

 

[rob@rar]

I'm going to be a bit of a heretic and say I enjoyed the Rings of Power and very much looking forward to the next season. It started very slowly, but I thought for the last two or three episodes it got in to its stride very nicely. Revealing Sauron and the is it/isn't it Gandalf storyline makes a firm connection to events in Lord of the Rings, and could be a great foundation for revealing more of Middle-Earth's history.

Not that I'd want anything other than classic Lord of the Rings to feature in Universal Great Britain, of course...

 

[rob@rar]

It's unrelated. I was talking to the guys yesterday, he said there's a fault somewhere and they have to dig the road to find it.

Closed until 14 May.

 

[Chessy]

Trying to think of names they can use for a LOTR area…

Kingdoms of Middle Earth?

 

[xtpower]

Imagine if they did a LOTR land but it was set during ROP

 

[bedfordmassive]

I’m not suggesting that the planning process will be completed before the elections, however there are next steps in the special development order that could be taken prior to the election. They have a government sponsor already and might have agreed that their consultation suffices - the SDO process seems flexible.

For example, they might be working with Department for Levelling Up or whatever its full name is to draft the order so it’s ready to be signed off post election if it’s early. I can’t see a reason for the unusual haste in the consultation if there isn’t a date to beat for next steps.

 

[rob@rar]

I’m not suggesting that the planning process will be completed before the elections, however there are next steps in the special development order that could be taken prior to the election. They have a government sponsor already and might have agreed that their consultation suffices - the SDO process seems flexible.

For example, they might be working with Department for Levelling Up or whatever its full name is to draft the order so it’s ready to be signed off post election if it’s early. I can’t see a reason for the unusual haste in the consultation if there isn’t a date to beat for next steps.

It's difficult to know for sure as there doesn't seem top be any agreed process for a SDO of this kind. From what I can see the government offering a private developer a SDO of this scale is entirely unprecedented. There doesn't seem to be any guidelines of any kind for the process, and I don't believe there has been a previous example where one government acted as a sponsor to another government department which was responsible for the decision. I think they're kind of making it up as they go along, which I applaud.

What isn't flexible is the process for approving a Statutory Instrument in parliament. This is entirely determined by the usual manner in which SIs are tabled and passed under a Negative procedure. AIUI (and I'm absolutely not a parliamentary procedural expert) the secondary legislation comes in to force 21 days after the Minister tables the Statutory Instrument in the Commons and the Lords, and both Houses have up to 40 (sitting?) days to object to the SI (by passing a quaintly named Prayer Motion). Both of those aspects assume the Commons and the Lords are in session rather than in recess. So the potential problem is not the government or its civil servants dragging their feet, it's the fact that for the SDO to become law requires both Commons and Lords to be sitting. It a normal year this isn't too much of a problem as the parliamentary recesses are known and can be worked around. But in a general election year it's not possible to say for certain when parliament sits and when it is dissolved for the election campaign. If the SDO isn't passed before the summer recess I think it's touch and go whether there will be the parliamentary time before a possible autumn election. I thought there would be enough time before the summer until I read on Universal's project website that the government will do a public consultation on Universal's planning submission. That's going to take up a chunk of time.

 

[yepthatguy]

It's unrelated. I was talking to the guys yesterday, he said there's a fault somewhere and they have to dig the road to find it.

Ah right thanks.

An excellent cover story.

 

[IzzyB]

I'm going to be a bit of a heretic and say I enjoyed the Rings of Power and very much looking forward to the next season. It started very slowly, but I thought for the last two or three episodes it got in to its stride very nicely. Revealing Sauron and the is it/isn't it Gandalf storyline makes a firm connection to events in Lord of the Rings, and could be a great foundation for revealing more of Middle-Earth's history.

Not that I'd want anything other than classic Lord of the Rings to feature in Universal Great Britain, of course...

I mean doesn't LOTR movies start slow? The whole first movie was painfully slow. Maybe that is just me.

 

[JoeMcSqueezy]

Trying to think of names they can use for a LOTR area…

Kingdoms of Middle Earth?

I thought of “Middle Earth: Realm of the Rings” and I’ve grown attached to that name

 

[Chessy]

I thought of “Middle Earth: Realm of the Rings” and I’ve grown attached to that name

It’s got a nice ‘ring’ to it

 

[BMC]

I think people are being slightly too ambitious that we'll hear anything too formal from the Gov before the election, which is rumoured for Oct/Nov/Dec. The UK is too bureaucratic, and in general the whole concept of Special Development Orders (SDOs) and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) is still fairly novel for gov officials, so we lack the capacity/capability to deliver these at speed.

As others have pointed out, Parliament will recess over Summer, that will be followed by Party conference season in Sept/Oct, and then a probable election in Nov/Dec (which will include a 6-week ish purdah period prior to this date). The political calendar is (or will be) incredibly full over the next six months. And Universal GB isn't a vote winner. The focus will be elsewhere, even if civil servants will be working on this in the background with Universal reps.

 

[xtpower]

I think people are being slightly too ambitious that we'll hear anything too formal from the Gov before the election, which is rumoured for Oct/Nov/Dec. The UK is too bureaucratic, and in general the whole concept of Special Development Orders (SDOs) and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) is still fairly novel for gov officials, so we lack the capacity/capability to deliver these at speed.

As others have pointed out, Parliament will recess over Summer, that will be followed by Party conference season in Sept/Oct, and then a probable election in Nov/Dec (which will include a 6-week ish purdah period prior to this date). The political calendar is (or will be) incredibly full over the next six months. And Universal GB isn't a vote winner. The focus will be elsewhere, even if civil servants will be working on this in the background with Universal reps.

I beg to differ, UGB is definitely a vote-winner, a billion pound project that will boost both the economy and rejuvenate an area that dearly needs it. As it stands the Tories need some sort of win, the recent yougov poll indicates the election will be a catastrophe for them and they need all the wins they can get.

A project of this scale that will pump £10 billion into the economy and that's just in constructing the thing, this doesn't include the tourism boost that it'll cause. It behooves the Tories to make sure it gets a greenlight before they hit the polls, otherwise they're looking at having only 13 MP's in Parliament (current yougov poll) after the election and so they need a big win to at least give them enough momentum to recover some ground.

*edit* Universal Great Britain will be a globally significant project if it goes ahead. The Tories will definitely want it greenlit and planning approved while they still hold power so they can use the fact it got started under their watch as a big chip in future elections. Then if it succeeds and pumps billions upon billions into the economy well they'll go ahead and attribute that to them cutting all the red tape and getting it approved etc etc.

But if the approval takes too long and it gets approved during a Labour administration, well it will certainly hurt them (Tories) long-term.

 

[BMC]

I beg to differ, UGB is definitely a vote-winner, a billion pound project that will boost both the economy and rejuvenate an area that dearly needs it. As it stands the Tories need some sort of win, the recent yougov poll indicates the election will be a catastrophe for them and they need all the wins they can get.

A project of this scale that will pump £10 billion into the economy and that's just in constructing the thing, this doesn't include the tourism boost that it'll cause. It behooves the Tories to make sure it gets a greenlight before they hit the polls, otherwise they're looking at having only 13 MP's in Parliament (current yougov poll) after the election and so they need a big win to at least give them enough momentum to recover some ground.

*edit* Universal Great Britain will be a globally significant project if it goes ahead. The Tories will definitely want it greenlit and planning approved while they still hold power so they can use the fact it got started under their watch as a big chip in future elections. Then if it succeeds and pumps billions upon billions into the economy well they'll go ahead and attribute that to them cutting all the red tape and getting it approved etc etc.

But if the approval takes too long and it gets approved during a Labour administration, well it will certainly hurt them (Tories) long-term.

I think there is a risk that we exist in a bubble where something like Universal GB is incredibly exciting for us, and the people of Bedford, but the average voter is 1) not going to know about this and 2) even if they do know about this, they're not going to be basing their electoral decisions on this. This may exercise voters in the local area, but do you really think Jack from Bradford is going to vote on this issue over, say, the NHS waiting lists or a lack of teachers in schools?

To answer your second point, I fail to see how a planning application of this scale can be 1) developed be Uni in consultation with statutory partners 2) delivered to relevant Gov departments 3) progressed through statutory public consultations and 4) approved....all before the probable election in Autumn.

Can I remind people that the UK Gov has currently spent £300 million on a planning application...for a bridge. If you were to read all 360,000 pages of its various application documents it would take you over a year of constant reading 24/7 (nope I'm not joking). We just aren't quick at planning in this country and there is no reason to believe this would be different - although I'd love to be wrong.

 

[xtpower]

I think there is a risk that we exist in a bubble where something like Universal GB is incredibly exciting for us, and the people of Bedford, but the average voter is 1) not going to know about this and 2) even if they do know about this, they're not going to be basing their electoral decisions on this. This may exercise voters in the local area, but do you really think Jack from Bradford is going to vote on this issue over, say, the NHS waiting lists or a lack of teachers in schools?

To answer your second point, I fail to see how a planning application of this scale can be 1) developed be Uni in consultation with statutory partners 2) delivered to relevant Gov departments 3) progressed through statutory public consultations and 4) approved....all before the probable election in Autumn.

Can I remind people that the UK Gov has currently spent £300 million on a planning application...for a bridge. If you were to read all 360,000 pages of its various application documents it would take you over a year of constant reading 24/7 (nope I'm not joking). We just aren't quick at planning in this country and there is no reason to believe this would be different - although I'd love to be wrong.

I can't answer the other two paragraphs because I'm just not knowledgeable enough to do so and I don't wanna say something stupid in an attempt to seem smart.

But for the first one, if Universal Great Britain gets the greenlight it will be in the National news and all the papers. It will also be news globally too, Universal is a huge name and a project like this would guarantee big coverage - hell everyone and their mum covered the buying land and confirmation news and that was small potatoes compared to what a greenlight announcement would get.

As for the average voter, you might be right, but they'll certainly find out about it and whomever is in power when this thing gets approval will spin it to benefit them the most. They'll use the giant injection of funds into the economy and tourism boost as a badge of honour and a way of telling the average voter that their party is the party that gets things done and gets projects that benefit the UK massively off the ground.

At the end of the day politicians will use this to score big brownie points and use it to gather momentum for votes. It might not be enough to sway an election but considering one side is looking down the barrel of a gun right now, I think they'd do anything to get more votes.

But how they speed the process up? I have no idea, I just know it is no small thing and that they will use it to benefit themselves.