Universal Great Britain

[rob@rar]

Hi Rob, good find but the link isn’t working for me, it shows a message “access denied request has expired”. Do you have another link at all?

Companies House must use dynamic links. Visit the filing history for SC Collections and select "Statement of Capital" from 3 March.

 

[Altonsky]

Yes but imagine fine drizzle, so fine you can't see it but it soaks you, its 4°C and windy, grey skies , wana trade? lol

Our weather down south is basically not too dissimilar to the weather in Paris, although they probably get far colder during the winter and we may not quite reach their peak temp during the summer.

 

[ProjectUniversal]

One of the companies bought by Comcast from the Cloud Wing group to acquire the land at Bedford is SC Collection Limited. This is now fully owned by Comcast, with company directors Page Thompson (Head of Universal New Ventures) plus two of Universal's UK-based senior staff. SC Collection has just reported that in December 2024 nearly £141M was injected in to the company (presumably by Comcast) through the creation of an additional share.

I spotted the share thing too, I wonder if they have had a cash injection again and could be be seeing movement soon.

 

[yepthatguy]

Companies House must use dynamic links. Visit the filing history for SC Collections and select "Statement of Capital" from 3 March.

Thanks Rob, I’ve found it. That’s very curious. Universal inherited SC Collections (and about 5 other companies I think) as part of Cloudwing and Universal are now listed as directors and like you say, they just paid in £140 million pounds from what it shows.

Wowzers!

 

[saint.piss]

 

[havaska]

Companies House must use dynamic links. Visit the filing history for SC Collections and select "Statement of Capital" from 3 March.

Thanks for this. £141,000,000 (around US$180,000,000) is a very significant sum.

For me, this feels like a confirmation this project is going ahead. Because it means they’re either buying *more* land or it’s working capital to start construction.

 

[Luke Hutchinson]

Thanks for this. £141,000,000 (around US$180,000,000) is a very significant sum.

For me, this feels like a confirmation this project is going ahead. Because it means they’re either buying *more* land or it’s working capital to start construction.

They can’t start construction though, nothing has been submitted for the SDO

 

[havaska]

They can’t start construction though, nothing has been submitted for the SDO

But they can sign contracts, buy equipment etc. As I said, working capital.

 

[Ryuniversal]

What’s the timeline on this thing probably start work late 2025- early 2026 finish work late 2029 early 2030 open summer 2030?

 

[rob@rar]

What’s the timeline on this thing probably start work late 2025- early 2026 finish work late 2029 early 2030 open summer 2030?

Universal said last year that "Enabling Works" will be in place by the end of 2025. I guess this means constructing access routes to the site for large scale construction equipment, establishing a construction village, etc. There seems to have been a longer process of negotiating the planning permission than initially expected, but we can only guess if this has impacted the actual construction timetable.

 

[xtpower]

There was probably substantial leeway built into their timetable to allow for extended negotiations etc etc. But from what I can see, it looks like the 'enabling works' process has begun. We have the slab that got cleared, the large heras fencing delivery and from @ProjectUniversal 's recent YT video, it looks like we have the makings of a potential site entrance for the Park parcel.

 

[JT01]

This is all getting exciting now!

 

[xtpower]

Here's an image of the potential site entrance. Credit to @ProjectUniversal and his facebook group.

 

[JT01]

Fencing has started to be erected on site today apparently, I have seen photos posted on facebook, not proper hoarding though which I thought would be needed for such a project..?

 

[Lost Meerkat]

.

 

[Lost Meerkat]

Fencing has started to be erected on site today apparently, I have seen photos posted on facebook, not proper hoarding though which I thought would be needed for such a project..?

It has indeed, I took a couple of photos but they are too big to upload. I posted them on a local dedicated facebook page. It is Heras fencing, a the moment, probably intended to keep out the wandering public from coming to have a look and walking all over the farmers field.

 

[xtpower]

It has indeed, I took a couple of photos but they are too big to upload. I posted them on a local dedicated facebook page. It is Heras fencing, a the moment, probably intended to keep out the wandering public from coming to have a look and walking all over the farmers field.

Any link to the page with the pictures? I'd like and I'm sure others would like to see it.

 

[Luke Hutchinson]

It has indeed, I took a couple of photos but they are too big to upload. I posted them on a local dedicated facebook page. It is Heras fencing, a the moment, probably intended to keep out the wandering public from coming to have a look and walking all over the farmers field.

Do we know if you’re still able to use the public footpath through property? If that’s been cut off that’d be very interesting

 

[rob@rar]

Just a quick reminder, there are a couple of events next week that might give us some more clues to the progress being made on Universal's plans in respect of negotiations with the government. On Thursday 20th March, Bedford Council's Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet. Due to be on their agenda is an update on the Universal proposal. This is the committee that received a report from Sam Fox last autumn, the planning consultant employed by Bedford Council to lead their interests around the theme park proposal, in which we had the most reliable update so far from someone directly involved with the planning application. I assume that the meeting will be broadcast, as it usually is. The agenda for the meeting should appear in a couple of days to confirm, hopefully, that the committee will have some sort of update.

Also on 20th March, local MP Blake Stephenson, has secured a debate on 'Government Support for the Tourism Industry'. A government minister will be required to respond to points raised during the debate on 20 March, and I'd guess this will be Sir Chris Bryant, Minister for Tourism and the lead minister for negotiations with Universal. This maybe yet another "negotiations are progressing well" non-response, or it may be that the government wants to get out some good economic news in advance of a tough Spring Statement and this might be a good opportunity. Whatever the case, I'm sure that Mr Stephenson will ask the government what's going on with Universal's planning application.

 

[xtpower]

A link to a facebook post with pictures of the fencing appeared on towers street, so I'm going to link it here too.



My thinking is that something's been signed off and Universal are starting the 'enabling works' properly. You wouldn't heras fence the Park Zone unless you're expecting to do something within it. So this is all very exciting.