London Resort company liquidated: now time to save threatened site for good
Legal costs awarded to CPRE Kent and other conservation groups by High Court
The benighted London Resort theme park that threatened to destroy north Kent’s Swanscombe peninsula has finally been put out of its misery.
The High Court has ruled that London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), the operator behind the scheme, be liquidated due to financial and contractual disputes.
In addition, the Planning Inspectorate has held LRCH accountable for its “unreasonable behaviour” during the planning process, awarding legal costs to CPRE Kent, Kent Wildlife Trust, Buglife, National Highways and others.
With LRCH liquidated, it is doubtful those costs will be paid, but the point that its behaviour had been unacceptable has been confirmed by the High Court with no shred of ambiguity.
CPRE Kent, together with the RSPB, Buglife, Kent Wildlife Trust and Save Swanscombe Peninsula, had challenged the environmentally disastrous scheme from the start and campaigned for it to be designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest – and in 2021 Natural England declared that it did indeed warrant SSSI status in recognition of its massive ecological importance.
The following year, LRCH withdrew its application for a Development Consent Order and in December of that year its option agreement lapsed and was not renewed.
The situation remained murky until last week’s High Court’s ruling.
CPRE Kent and other conservation groups believe 2014’s designation of the London Resort scheme as a Nationally Important Infrastructure Project (NSIP) should never have been made and have repeatedly called for it to be revoked.
That uncertainty should now be ended once and for all with the removal of NSIP status – after all, if the project is dead, surely so is that status?
The Swanscombe peninsula is a critical green lung for people and wildlife alike in a desperately overcrowded part of the county. It is time to end the speculation and protect it in perpetuity.
- For more on the Swanscombe peninsula, click here
