Universal Great Britain - Speculation & Rumors

[ZeroSight]

Alot of these concerns are for villages or roads that are way out of Universal's purview. You give them answers for the main roads and then suddenly you get a half dozen new places and roads thrown at you. I appreciate these concerns are legit for the roads around the Park and adjacent villages, but no matter how much you reassure them that these issues are covered and Universal have a plan they just come up with new concerns.

*edit* Someone on facebook cited Alton Towers as possible comparison in regards to the traffic the villages will see. Which blew my mind, Alton Towers is a prime example of a Park with horrendous transport access, UGB is on the opposite side of the spectrum and even if the A421 flooded, it'd still be 50x better to get to than AT.

Another concern that is starting to really bug me is this idea that parkgoers will skip the A421 and just go through the villages to get access. I don't know about any of you, but everytime I've been on a trip we've never taken routes through villages when there was a direct route via motorways - the motorways are always faster and far less stressful than having to navigate some villages in an attempt to beat the traffic.

The only people I see taking the villages are the locals, or those around the area who feel they know better. Some family rocking up at Luton Airport and using a rental car will take the motorways and direct route.

I'm all for the park, I travel the world and plan holidays around theme parks. But the concerns for us locals are valid, and this is the time to voice them in the hope the concerns are addressed.

The main areas that concern me is that currently, without any extra few thousand cars in the area, is the crossroads NE of the Bedford Interchange and the road leading from/to that past it (B530). And Ampthill High Street. It's an old town about 3 miles south and is one lane near the mini roundabout. Already on a standard weekend it gets very busy, it gets even worse when the M1 has issues. Now add in an extra few thousand cars travelling to and from the park and the M1 is closed or congested, which happens more than you think and it'll be an absolute mess and really hard for the locals to go about their business and also for Universal visitors. If the M1 isn't running well for whatever reason, people do use the Harlington, Westoning, Flitwick, Ampthill route. I don't know what could be done that's not too expensive to resolve, but these concerns the locals are raising, shouldn't just be dismissed. The new infrastructure at the Black Cat, at J13 and getting into the park will not resolve any of this.

 

[rob@rar]

I don't know what could be done that's not too expensive to resolve, but these concerns the locals are raising, shouldn't just be dismissed. The new infrastructure at the Black Cat, at J13 and getting into the park will not resolve any of this.

I completely agree that these concerns shouldn't be dismissed. Universal and/or the government should at the very least say "we have considered these concerns in a systematic way, with the best traffic flow modelling tools available to us, and here is what we think will be the typical situation and this is what might happen when traffic flow is disrupted from normal". I've read some of the planning documents regarding traffic estimations and it all seems reasonable, but I've not looked in close detail so the concerns you and other locals have raised might not have been addressed. What I did find disappointing from watching some of the local councillor engagement events or meetings was that clearly the councillors and the local residents hadn't read the aspects of the planning documents that referred directly to the concerns they were discussing.

I think these kinds of issues are best resolved if there's a respectful two-way conversation between Universal and the local community. I'm not sure that's happening at the moment. Universal have laid out extremely detailed plans and forecasts and I don't think that many people are engaging with that information. I think it's inevitable that planning permission is going to be granted and the resort will be constructed, so you're right to say that it's not obvious what could be done that's not too expensive to resolve some of these concerns, but I think the starting point should be to understand whether the concerns are realistic or simply understandable fears which are unlikely to come to pass. The best way to address that is through the kind of traffic flow modelling that Universal presented in their planning applications, which from what I can see simply doesn't feature in the local debates.

 

[yepthatguy]

I’d describe Ampthill as picturesque.

I’ve driven through there before quite a few times, often getting stuck at the double roundabouts in the village centre, where there is maybe just enough room to get 2 vehicles though, if you are lucky.

If international visitors were staying for multiple days at the Universal Resort, I’d suspect a good few might be interested in visiting a quaint Georgian Market town less than 15 minutes drive away, that has Boutiques, Antiques Shops, Tea Rooms, and proper English pubs.

Perhaps less known are its links to Henry VIII and Katherine Of Aragon as Ampthill Castle (just a huge park now) used to be a Royal Residence.

Apologies for the poor history lesson, I’m just surprised that people are raising concerns of traffic going through it, rather than people descending on it.

I had a quick look and there’s only a couple of Air Bnbs in Ampthill listed. It’ll be interesting to see if that changes as things progress.

On a relevant side note, I once had some American friends come visit whilst they were in the UK (close family friends). I took them to Ampthill, and they loved it.