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And breathe. As a local, I attended. I aired a question of concern I had, speaking with a member of the presenting team afterwards. I will give a brief rundown of what we know. I'll try and post in more detail later. 1. 72m / 236ft high. 2. A proposed layout didn't give anything away in terms of manufacturer. 3. Someone did say "There is a team performing noise surveys on a similar ride in Turkey" 4. The current design suggests a station roughly where the old train station is. It is compact round the Loggers lake. 4a. A "splash zone" overlooking the lake 4b. Possible inversions, but maybe not. Hard to say. 4c. If inversions, then maybe world's tallest inversion is possible. The general vibe was that people are frustrated with current noise levels and how the park is operating, but don't seem particularly opposed to a new investment. As I say, I will try and post more later. Please remain calm.

Thorpe have released a video on socials as well confirming it is in the works, as well as announcing aloud the closure of the flats or a potential relocation. My bet is the beach by Wet Wet Wet/Containment for Timber Tug Boat and Lumber Jump. One thing for certain is there are very exciting times ahead* *Pending planning permission approval

BREAKING NEWS - Today, @THORPEPARK have revealed at their in-person consultation that they plan to build a 236ft coaster for the 2023/4 season. hyper it is!

I think I made it sound worse than what it is. Ultimately everyone seemed understanding of the need for expansion and investment, but found that the noise from tannoys and some screaming can carry over the lake. The concern was that the park didn't fully appreciate or understand what the base level of noise can sometimes be. I think it's easily rectified with some dialogue between both sides, which is the point of this consultation. I don't think it's a particular bump in the road, and don't think people will end up being against the investment. I'm sure a good resolution can come from this. It was to do with traffic. Peak times around the park are congested (not just because of the park of course), and I'm aware in the past construction of rides has highlighted this further. I'll give a summary of everything I can remember, but obviously we'll have actual pictures and stuff tomorrow: The Ride I will give an honest reaction here: when people see the visuals shown today, I think people will be divided. It didn't look that long. Looks can be deceiving and it was hard to get much of a feel from quick looks at the visuals. It's a very densely packed layout. It goes over the central lake a few times, but doesn't sprawl much. It has quite a few high points, again all closely packed together. It gave me a little bit of Steel Curtain (Kennywood, USA) vibes in some sense, where there's a lot of elements packed together. Looking at it, it's hard to tell if there were inversions or not. The visuals are very loose. There's elements which look like they could be inversions, but they could also be non-inverting elements. IF there are inversions, we could be looking at the world's tallest inversion. We could be looking at anywhere up to 6 to 7 inversion or so. There's also a splash zone, which could indicate a splash down too. But it didn't look like it was near any track. Very confusing. So this will be very interesting to see people's reactions when we get a look at the visuals. Other details -Manufacturer: The official line was they are still talking to multiple manufacturers. One member of the team speaking at the consultation said "there's people doing noise tests on a similar ride in Turkey". Would suggest the Flash clone, and hence Mack, but who knows. -Other rides: No other rides were shown in the area. -Existing rides: They said they're looking to retain "at least one of the existing rides". -Height: 72m/236ft -Speed/Length: Nothing said Timeline (if all goes to plan) -Today to January 2022: Consultation period -Spring 2022: Plans submitted to council -Summer 2022: Plans approved -Late 2022: Construction starts -Date TBC: Ride opens. They did mention 2024, seemingly by accident. It also seems likely, given the timescale. It does beg the question why Old Town needs to close now if construction isn't due to start until late 2022. I guess they could do some work during 2022 to prep, with main construction starting in 2022. It also answers a potential question about Creek Freak Massacre. That could certain return next year if work around that building hasn't started by next October. Project Name One of the visuals labelled the roller coaster as Project Exodus. So that answers that. Track Colour Stealth is coloured white on the top to blend in with the skyline, then has blue elsewhere. The park are considering something similar with this, but nothing is confirmed. Visitation The park said that they see the need for investing as a way of stopping declining visiting numbers, and getting people coming back. They don't expect the visitor levels to rise up dramatically. They also acknowledged the potential for competition from London Resort. Personally I found it convenient that Merlin don't think it will happen, but they'll cite it as a need to invest in a new ride. ha Anything Else I can't think of anything else major. There will be lots of trees cut, but these will be carefully chosen and likely lots of ones which are dying. The area isn't of any ecological interest. I'm sure everything else will come tomorrow and I'll remember more. Locals The actual consultation was fine (at least, the one I went to was). Maybe a couple of questions which were more geek-oriented, but it was nice to see people being respectful that this was a process for locals. That said, it's a little disappointing hearing and seeing people online referring to people as "Karens" for bringing up concerns. I don't think that anything raised by anyone was unreasonable. These are people with genuine concerns, some of whom have lived in the local area for many years before the park became filled with thrill rides. As I've said, I don't think anyone is against development particularly (and indeed, even those with pressing concerns acknowledged that it looks and sounds good for the park), but these are people's lives. I think it's worth stressing time and time again, there's a pretty good two way communication between the park and locals, and both sides are keen for that to continue. I just hope that everyone appreciates that, and don't berate people in any way for having concerns. It's not like they're even being Roper-esque (Alton Towers reference), they just want a very happy and respectful compromise.

Well never thought a mack (not yet confirmed but looking like it) hyper would have been what we are getting. Absolutely huge inversions, compact layout (for a hyper), splash down. Whats not to love.

So, what are our final predictions the day before we find out what's in store? My final prediction is: B&M Hyper Coaster UK's tallest coaster (unsure on exact height, but my personal prediction is that it will break Big One's park-billed height of 235ft as well as RCDB's figure of 213ft) Opening in 2024 Let's see how much of that, if any, I get right...