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HomeEntertainmentPlans For Theme Park On Swanscombe Peninsular Scrapped

Plans For Theme Park On Swanscombe Peninsular Scrapped

Plans for a theme park in Swanscombe, Kent have been, originally to be called ‘Paramount Park’ have been scrapped.

The dream for the London Resort died at the High Court last week as a judge ordered company London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) into liquidation.

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.

The company first revealed plans to build a £2.5billion attraction on 535 acres of former industrial land, near Dartford, in 2012.

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. After falling out with entertainment giant Paramount, which claimed it was owed millions of pounds after breaches of contract, its legal pressures have now finally ended the scheme.

Originally Paramount agreed 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 and LRCH began looking at BBC and ITV for inspiration.

In 2021, the plans hit further problems when the site 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.

Kuwaiti businessman Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi was the main person 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 said ‘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.’

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