London Resort, first proposed in 2012, promised six roller coasters, themed fantasy areas and even a giant fairytale castle built on a peninsula on the Thames Estuary near Dartford in Kent
After plans for a massive theme park costing £2.5billion and taking up as much room as 136 Wembley Stadiums fell through, locals have said their businesses have been “left to rot”.
London Resort, first proposed in 2012, promised six roller coasters, themed fantasy areas and even a giant fairytale castle built on a peninsula on the Thames Estuary near Dartford in Kent.
The ambitious project would have been three times the size of any other theme park in the country with artist’s renderings showing plush hotels surrounding the park offering 3,500 rooms for guests to stay in. The project also promised two new ferry terminals as well as 33,000 local jobs.
But after thirteen years stuck in a legal and planning nightmare the theme park, dubbed “Dartford Disneyland” was finally pronounced dead after the High Court ordered the company behind the project, LRCH, into insolvency last week.
The years since the project was first announced have been anything but a fairytale for locals. With businesses unsure if their premises would be bulldozed to make way for the proposed theme park, local investment dropped off with many feeling they were “left to rot”.
The park, originally named Paramount Entertainment Resort, swept many locals off their feet when it was first announced. With Mission:Impossible and Star-Trek attractions slated for the attraction, as part of a deal with the studio and talk of partnerships with Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animation.
There were even hopes for Doctor Who and Top Gear-themed rides after a partnership with the BBC was announced. But initial hope for jobs and infrastructure development among locals quickly turned sour.
In 2014 council staff caused outrage after nine senior members were sent on a £15,000 “fact finding” trip to several Florida theme parks. Three years later, without any sign of work beginning, Paramount pulled out of the deal. Despite the move plunging the plans into chaos, developers carried on, now with a slated opening date of 2023.
Finally in 2021 he scheme finally submitted plans to the Government. But then a rare species was discovered on land slated for the park, the distinguished jumping spider, a tiny arachnid measuring only 1cm across found nowhere else in the UK.
This was the final nail in the coffin for the plans, the Sun reports, with local environmental campaigners looking for a way to block the project and Natural England could designating the site a Site of Special Scientific Importance (SSSI) due to the spider, it was the beginning of the end of the resort dream.
The planning application was withdrawn after BBC and ITV bosses dropped out, but the legacy of the park proposal still casts a long shadow over the community. With businesses on the land earmarked for development under threat from being issued a compulsory purchase order firms had no long-term stability, some put off repairs and plans for expansion.
“We were all under the impression they were gonna bulldoze it, so what was the point of spending any money?” Mark West, director of a local accident repair shop told the Sun.
“It used to be lovely – now it’s just a place people come to dump cars. Sadly it’s just a godforsaken hellhole that’s been left to rot,” said Snack van owner Joe Smith, 37.
As the dust settles and the park’s demise becomes certain many are pointing the finder of blame. A spokesman for LRCH, the company behind the project, 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.”
Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi, the Kuwaiti businessman who bankrolled the project previously told KentOnline that the saga of the park “destroyed his life” and bankrupted him. He said he was unable to return to his homeland for fear of being imprisoned, after facing legal action from investors who have accused him of cooking up a “fictitious” project.
Dr Al-Humaidi, who resigned from the company’s board in 2022 pointed the finger of blame squarely at the UK’s “broken” planning system.
Peninsular Management group, which represents a number of the firms on the estate, is now battling to have the site returned to the control of local planners. Chairman Doug Hilton said it was a relief that the park had not been built: “It just goes to show that in fact the planning system has worked and how much chronic damage a naive young man with a lot of money can do,” he said.