'UK Disneyland' theme park officially scrapped as £2.5bn project plans collapse
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Plans for a £2.5billion theme park that would have been the "British Disneyland" have officially been scrapped. The London Resort was initially set to be built on Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent, and was going to be three times larger than any other UK theme park.
The build, which was going to be as large as 136 Wembley stadiums, has been plagued with setbacks since the start. Plans for the multi-billion pound entertainment park have now come to a screeching halt. London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) has been ordered into liquidation by a High Court judge despite the potential for the resort to create tens of thousands of jobs and attracting millions of visitors to the capital each year. The legal row is with entertainment giant Paramount, which claims it is owed millions over a broken contract.
A spokesman for LRCH said: “The dream of the London Resort has been ended by the courts. 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.”.
The brains behind the scheme, Kuwaiti businessman Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi, had hoped his theme park dreams - which would feature rides, restaurants and hotels - would have come to fruition. Former Transport Secretary Steve Norris, and former chairman of LRCH, described the scuppered plans as a "tragedy" for the country.
Speaking to KentOnline today, he said: “I cannot comment on recent events since I resigned from LRCH some time ago, but I offer only one observation. 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.
