Company behind £2,500,000,000 ‘UK Disneyland’ says London Resort dream is dead

The company behind long-awaited plans to build a £2.5billion ‘UK Disneyland’ on the outskirts of London has declared the ‘dream’ has now been ended.

Plans for ‘The London Resort’ were first unveiled nearly 14 years ago, which was to be located on the Swanscombe Peninsula between Dartford and Kent and was billed as Britain’s equivalent to Disneyland Paris.

Promoters of the scheme boasted huge partnerships with the BBC, ITV and Hollywood studio Paramount, which would have seen attractions based on Top Gear, Paddington Bear, Mission: Impossible and Doctor Who.

Other features were set to include eight huge roller coasters and different zones containing medieval castles, an Aztec pyramid, a 2,000-seat theatre and a nightclub.

But it has finally been scrapped following a row over funding and the conservation of a rare type of spider.

The company behind the project, London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), said in a statement: ‘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 resort, which was predicted to create 30,000 jobs and bring in 12 million visitors a year, was due to finally open its doors in 2024.

But after accruing over £100million in debt and falling afoul of Natural England’s decision to designate the land as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the project has finally been shut down.

Following a High Court application by Paramount, who is owed £13million by investors, Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Sally Barber found the London Resort Company has ceased trading and ‘appears unlikely ever to do so again’, the Times reports.

And a High Court judge has since ordered LRCH into liquidation, ending the London Resort dream for good.

Steve Norris, a former transport secretary and former chairman of LRCH, described the park’s failure as ‘a tragedy’.

He told KentOnline: ‘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.

‘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.’

Natural England said the site’s former industrial use had created a landscape with ‘ideal conditions for a unique variety of wildlife’, including a variety of plants, birds, and the distinguished jumping spider – one of the rarest insects in the country.

In 2023, LRCH entered into an agreement with creditors to continue operating despite owing over £100million while it secured and additional £607million of funding.

But Paramount claimed that most of the money the company claimed to owe was a ‘sham’ linked to Abdulla al-Humaidi, a Kuwaiti businessman who ran the scheme until he was declared bankrupt last year.

Al-Humaidi, 38, said earlier this year the scheme had ‘ruined my reputation and left me bankrupt’ after he sunk £40million of his family’s fortune into the doomed project.

Sally Smith, press and advocacy officer at Kent Wildlife Trust, said the sale of the land once earmarked for the theme park came as no surprise as ‘the plans for the London Resort and the theme park on the site have been dead in the water for some time.’

‘We’ve been fighting to have that special planning removed from the site so it can be protected for nature for future generations to come,’ she added.

A further court hearing is set to take place at some point this year to decide the firm’s fate.

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