Plans for £2.5billion ‘British Disneyland’ within the Kent countryside are AXED
Plans for a theme park dubbed the ‘British Disneyland’ in the Kent countryside have been scrapped.
The dream for the London Resort died at the High Court as a judge ordered company London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) into liquidation.
The company first revealed plans to build a £2.5billion attraction on 535 acres of former industrial land on the Swanscombe Peninsula, near Dartford, in 2012.
It was set to feature 50 rides, including eight rollercoasters and different zones containing medieval castles and an Aztec pyramid, together with a 2,000-seat theatre and nightclub.
Architects dreamed it would be three times bigger than any other UK theme park, equivalent to 136 Wembley Stadiums.
However, after various planning snags and racking up debts of over £100m, the proposed park has faced an uphill battle in recent years to stay alive.
And after locking horns with entertainment giant Paramount, which claimed it was owed millions after breaches of contract, its legal pressures have now brought the curtain down on the scheme.
The Hollywood producers – behind some of the biggest and most famous films of all time including Titanic, the Indiana Jones films and The Godfather – had originally lent its name and intellectual property (IP) rights to the proposed park.
The park was going to be based in Kent between Gravesend and Dartford
Billed as one of the most ambitious theme park projects ever in Europe, the London Resort would have been the first European development of its kind to be built from scratch since the opening of Disneyland Paris in 1992
The London Resort would have been home to various TV and movie-themed attractions. Above, a previous mock-up of how the theme park could have looked
The deal would have enabled LRCH to use the names of its movies, such as Star Trek and the Mission: Impossible films, for its attractions – but Paramount later reneged on the agreement.
In a statement, a spokesman for LRCH confirmed that the doomed prospect of a British rival to Disneyland had ended.
‘The dream of the London Resort has been ended by the courts,’ they said. ‘Natural England fatally wounded the scheme, a single creditor has killed it and, with it, any chance of the UK competing on the envisaged scale of London Resort.’
Kuwaiti businessman Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi was the main driving force behind the plans for the theme park.
Last year he said the project had ‘destroyed’ his life, adding that it had also ‘ruined my reputation and left me bankrupt’.
Steve Norris, former Transport Secretary in the 1990s, and a former chairman of LRCH described the park’s failure as ‘a tragedy’.
He told Kent Online: ‘Abdulla and his family put millions into the project. A decade on from when the project started it still does not have planning consent which is a terrible reflection on our sclerotic planning system.
‘I am fairly sure that one of the main reasons why funding from the Gulf dried up was because nobody there could believe the UK government was sympathetic to the project if it still did not have planning consent after so many years and so much money spent.
‘Paramount’s attitude appears strangely unhelpful to say the least. It’s a tragedy for those who have lost money, for Abdulla and his family, for Kent and for the UK.’
The first-ever up-close pictures showed rides and attractions at the London Resort, which has been dubbed ‘Britain’s Disneyland’. Renderings reveal the park’s dinosaur land
Base Camp would have featured two roller coasters, a large multi-media live stage show experience, an advanced simulator attraction, immersive fine dining and an ‘active dig site’
In 2021, the plans hit a major hurdle when the site it intended to build on was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural England.
The plans had been designated as a Nationally significant Infrastructure Project (PSIP) and required a Development Consent Order (DCO) to continue ahead with the project.
But London Resort dramatically withdrew the plans just a day before the plans were due to be presented, citing environmental and transport issues.
On Friday, the Planning Inspectorate awarded legal costs to companies which had worked on the DCO bid before it was shelved, due to LRCH’s “unreasonable” behaviour.
It said the withdrawal of the DCO was made “without sound reason”, whilst exceptional circumstances had “not been demonstrated”.
Companies included Kent Wildlife Trust, Bugs Life, National Highways, Network Rail as well as Kent County Council, Dartford Borough Council and Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.
LRCH has also been told to pay costs to Merlin Entertainments, a rival theme park operator behind the likes of Chessington World of Adventures and Thorpe Park who had opposed the plans.
However reports suggest the companies owed money are unlikely to be recompensed.
A previous map and statement released by LRCH showed how the park would have been split into different themed areas, taking visitors from the medieval period to the 23rd century
LRCH, faced with administration in March 2023 after becoming swamped in debts totalling £100m, continued to cling to life by ushering in a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) – a legal device allowing new terms to be struck with those to whom it owed money.
Whilst convincing a majority of creditors to agree to the terms – which would have seen them issued shares in the company – Hollywood movie studio Paramount disagreed with the deal.
It vowed to take the case to the High Court, claiming LRCH had broken its terms of contract and owed it some £14m.
Last month, an insolvency judge in the High Court found there were at least three ‘serious and irremediable’ breaches by LRCH of its agreement to pay creditors including Paramount, which had originally agreed to lend its name and IP rights before later reneging.
The American firm told the court in October that LRCH had not adhered to its obligations under the CVA and was due for showdown in the High Court in April.
That case, which had put all plans for London Resort on hold, will no longer take place.
It marks a bitter denouement to the relationship between LRCH and Paramount, which had originally seen a deal struck for the project to be known as Paramount Park.
The naming rights deal was scrapped in 2017 two years before the IP deal was agreed.
The Swanscombe Peninsula, Kent (pictured above) was designated a site of special scientific interest in 2021
However, those close to the scheme say the LRCH cupboard is now ‘bare’, and that those owed money by the ambitious scheme are unlikely ever to be paid.
Liquidation will see a team of specialists appointed to identify property or assets it can liquify in order to pay back some of the money, though this is unlikely to get anywhere close to the total owed.
Last year, the land earmarked for the theme park and the company which owns the land, Swanscombe Development LLP, were both put up for sale
The land is made up of the former Swanscombe Cement Works, which was shut down in 1994.
The London Resort would have been the first European development of its kind to be built from scratch since the opening of Disneyland Paris in 1992.
The success of Disneyland Paris is a testament to the impact that a global theme park can have on the economy.
Over 3,500 hotel rooms were set to be created alongside two ferry terminals – one each side of the River Thames.
Politicians and local councils were optimistic about the project, hoping that the resort would bring more than 30,000 jobs – while jump-starting the economies of nearby Gravesend and Dartford.
A report on the economic contribution of Disneyland Paris found that the attraction added €68billion (£60billion) to the French economy in the 25 years since opening.
