Representation by Basildon Borough Council (Basildon Borough Council)
- Date submitted
- 26 March 2021
- Submitted by
- Local authorities
Basildon Council is a neighbouring authority under Duty to Cooperate, and supports the Resort proposal on its planning merits. It makes good use of a brownfield site and will create jobs in a deprived area. However, from reviewing the supporting documents, the Council does think that some realism must be retained as to what the project can and can't achieve. The Employment and Skills strategy notes that 10,000 of the 17,300 jobs are part time and seasonal. It is unclear what type of retail provision is sought at Ebbsfleet - this may not be able to be separated from the current malaise on the high street. For the Resort to follow the same growth trend as Disneyland Paris there are links to non-Planning matters such as immigration rules now that the UK has left the EU, the ongoing attractiveness of the UK as an attraction for significant foreign investment, but also the continuation of cheap and easy international travel, which does not sit too easily with the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Travel appears to concentrate too heavily on journeys starting and finishing in Greater London, while no mention was made of direct coach services to and from airports such as Gatwick or Stansted. That is an oversight if overseas visitors would firstly need to undertake an expensive and unnecessary journey into Central London. A little more clarity is needed on who the target market is: overseas or domestic visitors? If both, then greater connectivity is needed between the site and other trip generators (Lakeside/Bluewater shopping centres) and other principal towns and suitable liaison with transport providers will be needed. Also, trends within the holiday market will have an impact: further clarity on whether the 'resort' is seen as a main holiday destination in itself or whether it would be a stop-off for a short period for a day or two where visitors spend the rest of a trip exploring the wider area could be helpful, as this may influence the degree of additional transport connections or extra capacity on routes required. While the Resort is a good idea and has real planning merits, the Council is unsure as to the overall demand for this facility. The developers expect that the UK should already have “two or three” globally recognised theme parks, but the measures they have used to calculate this figure are less clear-cut. While this proposal has clear planning merits, makes good use of brownfield land and will be a significant employment generator, the fact that such ‘globally recognised’ theme parks do not presently exist in the UK - with a population of almost 67 million people - may be indicative of a general overall lack of demand. This does not appear to have been contemplated by the developers, but parks such as the American Adventure in Derbyshire also failed despite being hugely popular during the first half of its existence from 1986-2007.