Universal’s new UK mega theme park may wrestle with awkward bathroom drawback
The new theme park is forecast to attract millions of visitors and create thousands of jobs for the local community — but in turn with that comes an awful lot of sewage
Plans for a new Universal theme park have been given the green light — but a stinky issue has arisen(Image: Universal Studios)
Fears have been raised that a new multi-million theme park could be left covered in poo. Universal recently announced plans for a mega new site in the UK – which looks set to rival its super parks in America.
But a smelly new problem has arisen — with many wondering where people are going to go to the loo. The new theme park is forecast to attract millions of visitors and create thousands of jobs — but in turn with that comes an awful lot of sewage.
And now there are fears that the local sewers will just not cope with the extra level of number twos set to come into play — because the water treatment works close to Universal’s planned site in Bedfordshire is already at capacity. Now poo experts are warning that upgrade plans will need to be “sped through” quickly.
Anglian Water bosses have warned that Bedford Water Recycling Centre (WRC) will not be able to cope with the park’s output without a major upgrade. Geoff Darch, Anglian Water’s head of strategic asset planning, said: “The site is at its limit.
“The theme park will be like an additional small town being added in to this area — so it’s something we’ve got to take really seriously.” He added that current figures show the plant has permission to return about 35 million litres of cleaned sewage back to the environment per day, in fair weather.
But according to planning documents, Universal could eventually send an additional 10.6 million litres of foul discharge a day. In December, the government granted planning permission for the park on a former brickworks at Stewartby, about six miles (10km) south of Bedford town centre.
Expected to open in 2031, it will be one of the biggest in the world, with rides that could be inspired by movies from James Bond to Jurassic World. The movie giant says it will create 8,000 permanent jobs and the park is expected to draw eight million visitors in its first year, potentially rising to 12 million by 2051.
The firm already has permission from regulator Ofwat to spend an eyewatering £70 to 80million expanding Bedford’s waterworks by about 50% by 2035, funded by a rise in customers’ bills, which went from an average of £1.45 a day in 2024-25 to £1.72 in 2025-26, a 19% increase. However, he said sewage plans, once firmed up, will need to be “sped through the regulatory process” to make the opening of the park as smooth as possible.
“This is a very fast timescale. It’s much quicker than the normal development timescale,” he says. “An application that might previously have taken a couple of years to deliberate now need considering in a matter of weeks and months.”
Ofwat said Anglian Water had not yet formally submitted details of how Bedford WRC would need to expand further to accommodate theme park visitors. It comes as figures from 2024 revealed just how bad raw sewage was spilling into the UK’s national parks, which also attract thousands of visitors every year.
Latest figures show there are 464 water firm overflow sites inside national parks, and the average length of the spills for each site was 549 hours during the course of the year. The findings were blasted by campaigners, with some environmentalists branding the numbers as “outrageous”.
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