Universal Great Britain

[Luke Hutchinson]

Nice to see the most senior locally elected politicians across the region all getting together to put their weight behind Universal's proposal. Demonstrates that a world class theme park will benefit the entire region and beyond, not just the Bedford Council area.

I've been in touch with Bedford Council officers and they are currently waiting for the planning application information from the government in order to prepare the Council's response to the Special Development Order process.

So a planning application has gone in?

 

[rob@rar]

So a planning application has gone in?

Perhaps. This is such a big project I'd guess there's regular discussion between Universal and the government departments, so rather than a single event where Universal submit a bunch of papers as you would in a normal planning application, it's more likely to be an ongoing process which has continued in the background for a number of months. As the letter from the Council leaders stated "the business case [is] currently being finalised" by the DCMS. I've no doubt that things are continuing to move forwards.

 

[Luke Hutchinson]

Perhaps. This is such a big project I'd guess there's regular discussion between Universal and the government departments, so rather than a single event where Universal submit a bunch of papers as you would in a normal planning application, it's more likely to be an ongoing process which has continued in the background for a number of months. As the letter from the Council leaders stated "the business case [is] currently being finalised" by the DCMS. I've no doubt that things are continuing to move forwards.

I think I’m equally as interested to see the planning documents for what they might reveal but also just interested in the bureaucracy of it all

 

[rob@rar]

I think I’m equally as interested to see the planning documents for what they might reveal but also just interested in the bureaucracy of it all

Me too, although I don't think we are going to get a huge amount of detail as this is not a normal planning application. In a normal planning application that is submitted to a local council you have to fill out standard forms and submit building drawings which meet the council's usual requirements for them to assess the application. But we know that the planning process for Universal will be completely different, via a Special Development Order for which there doesn't seem to be any precedent. So I'm not expecting to see details of specific buildings or a plan of the site, not at this stage of the process at least.