Littleover Community School

BBC News School Report @ LCS

Paramount Plans: 'Disney Land' Theme Park in Kent

By: Amrit

Paramount have now made plans to open their own resort - Paramount London Entertainment Resort - on the Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent which may rival the scale of Paris’ Disneyland. They plan to open the park by Easter 2021 but may be set back due to a number of delays including planning application setbacks.

Paramount London Entertainment Resort will be approximately 872 acres big - two times bigger than an Olympic Park. Although this may seem big, it is incredibly small compared to Disneyland Paris’ 4,800 acres. Many people have claimed that Disneyland Paris is a small park so there are those who may complain that there won’t be enough room for the crazed fans to all fit into the new park. The resort is predicted to attract about 50,000 tourists daily and may create up to 27,000 jobs in the area.

Delays resulted after the company suffered a setback in February when it overstated its cash assets in an accounting mistake that claimed the firm had more than £291,000, when in fact there was only £952 in the bank. Therefore, the plan for the park is to be financed by Kuwait’s Al-Humaidi family; plans have shown that it will cost £2 billion in total.

The main attractions will be the theme park itself, a water park, large theatre and cinema as well as live music venues and 5,000 hotel rooms to accommodate the tourists. The park will feature 11,000 restaurants. However, the main feature that will be found at the front of the park (near the entrance) will be a Myths and Legends Castle. This was inspired by the castle from Magic Kingdom in Disney World Orlando, Florida.

The rides are going to be inspired by the films that Paramount has produced or co-produced including the Indiana Jones’ series where they may change the mine chase from the Temple of Doom into a ride. Some other films that rides may be based off of are Transformers, How To Train Your Dragon, a Top Gun style flight simulator and a scary ride based off of the Friday the 13th Series. There is also a possibility for the Godfather to be featured throughout the resort. One attraction is a Mission Impossible Training Centre. There will be a Star Trek themed land with Star Trek emblems on rides in here. There is also said to be an Entertainment Land where the cinema and theatre are planned to built in and many more different themed lands throughout the park.

After questioning a few lovers of rides from Littleover Community School, they said: ‘It sounds very fun and I would really like to go but I feel that the price is quite bad especially since it’ll be much smaller than Disney Land but will charge the same price. I would definitely go as it’s something different. I feel as if it’s a really long time away before the opening and I was quite looking forward to going straight away!’