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Plans to build what has been described as the UK’s answer to Disneyland have been axed over funding rows and environmental concerns.
A high court judge ordered the company behind the multi-billion-pound project ‘London Resort’ into liquidation, KentOnline reported.
The plans date back to 2012 when London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) proposed a park to be built across 535 acres of the Swanscombe Peninsula near Dartford just outside of London.
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.”
A Kuwaiti businessman, Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi, who was a driving force behind the resort told the local newspaper last year that the project had “destroyed my life”, adding that “it has ruined my reputation and left me bankrupt”.
He also previously criticised Britain’s planning system as “broken” and said it needed to be “streamlined”.
At the time, he still insisted that the park project could be seen through, but now a High Court judge in London has ordered that the company is wound up following an application by Paramount, which is owed £13.5 million, The Times reports.
LRCH had at one point partnered with Paramount Pictures during the planning stages.
The park had a projected opening date of 2024, complete with a theme park, waterpark, conference and convention centre, retail spaces and e-sport facilities.
More than 3,500 hotel rooms were also planned to be created alongside two ferry terminals – one on each side of the Thames.
However, LRCH faced a series of setbacks while the plans were being put in place, including when the proposed location of the park was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 2021 by Natural England.
Natural England said that the acres of land provided “ideal conditions for a unique variety of wildlife,” with birds and invertebrates such as the distinguished jumping spider (Sitticus distinguendus), one of the rarest spiders in the country, thriving there.
The company also reportedly accrued more than £100m in debt and was faced with administration in 2023, but managed to strike a deal with the majority of creditors, which allowed it to continue operating while securing a further £607 million of funding.
In December, a judge found that there were three “serious and irremediable breaches of the terms” of the company’s voluntary agreement with the creditors.
Steve Norris, a former transport secretary under John Major in the early 1990s, was the former chairman of LRCH but stepped down last year.
He told KentOnline that Dr Al-Humaidi had put millions into the project and described the decline of it as “a tragedy.”
“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,” he said.
“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.”
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
