ML27

But EA objections STILL remain, leading this planning permission to be referred to the Secretary of State, so it can actually be approved. The amount of misinformation is unreal.

Notoriously known for being a wind up, I’d like to know he’s sources and the mates in the comments seem like they are on a wind up. also anyway, if it was approved, what’s happened with the EA objection

Checked that first random planning application, that didn’t change after they moved onto thorpe park. Waiting for Jack Silkstones stream, Twitter is a mess now. People saying it’s been approved, running wild and saying “imagine if we see work start” wait until it has to be referred to government. I can’t imagine it’s been rejected, but a lot of fake news on Twitter

Tonight at 6:30pm, the Runnymede planning committee will meet to decline/ approve and refer to SOS the project exodus planning application. There was an addendum to the meeting with a few points Thorpe Park would want to highlight to the committee. See above but not much is special about this. The interesting part is the last part, as shows they still want Exodus to happen regardless of the London Resort

I love the reviews for this years fright nights. Press night everyone was saying it was the best year yet. Afterwards, everyone was saying it was weaker. There was a discussion on Twitter about this and I get the premise of press night. But the difference of opinion is quite different

Went last night, a Saturday. Was fairly quiet but will get busier each week towards Halloween. Saving the scare mazes until next week, but can imagine they will have the whole lack of actors issue. Scare Zones The Crows - The actor at the start trying to tell you a story doesn’t work with the amount of people coming through, nice touch though. The extended area doesn’t really work, not many people know it’s a route but when you do go through then there are two actors in a pretty unthemed queue line. I’d say keep it to all one route rather than multi, you notice there’s a lack of crows in the original route now. That was one of the best things about the zone, it was packed of actors because it was so small. Deaths Doors This is a nice idea but it doesn’t work, went a 3pm then 5pm and 7pm. Each time the zone was full of young kids with their phones proceeding to smash on every door they see without waiting and either filming the actor or trying to scare them. Nice idea but doesn’t work at an event which isn’t exclusive to adults. Amity More fun then scary. Upcharges at Fright nights There are pros and cons to the up charges. The upcharges prevent people who aren’t willing to be scared to not do them, also prevents young immature kids and adults alike from being anti social in the maze. The the quality of guest for the actors is higher. However, this fright nights compared to any other fright night in the park couple of years. The mazes are a key a crucial part of the event. £10 is too expensive to redo a maze again even if you enjoyed it, £5 is a lot more doable. However that might price more unwelcome guests back in. As a passholder, I cannot justify £24 for all 3 mazes each visit. I’d like to do it but the pricing structure doesn’t cater to passholders maybe something better next year for passholders. Like £45 unlimited mazes for the whole duration?

Survival Games closed early around 8pm for the night. Heard apparently a safety issue happened and it wasn’t safe to be in there? anyone got any light on the situation?

Long Post Incoming. The council have released a document explaining their reasoning as to why the committee should approve the application. It is a rollercoaster of a document, the council talks about how the application is inappropriate for the location it is in. (I will get back to this at the end of the post) The most interesting part of this document is the fact that the council acknowledges that “The timings for the responses from the Environment Agency have largely dictated the timescales for determination of this planning application”. This extract basically says that the EA take 8-12 weeks to respond. We are fed up with waiting and they recognise Thorpe need to open it in 2024 in order to recover from covid. I am glad the council recognise this fact This highlights that even if the EA do respond. The first objection will not be overcome; so eitherway they will have to go to the Secretary of State. The council do not think that it increases the flood risk and the EAs claim does not have substance. As discussed earlier, the development is not appropriate for the area it is built in, so they have to assess it for very special circumstances where they can build in a green belt area These are the reasons why thorpe have to build in this green belt area (the council reviews each one in detail in the document and weighs each one up) They believe that the development outweighs any harm. The council recognises that it is a theme park and in order to expand they need to build on the land which is already existing as part of the themepark. They recommend to the committee that the application is approved under the following conditions (pretty standard, included for reference) plus any conditions the EA have… OVERALL: Glad to see the council recognising that they need to invest more and build more as a themepark and that they recognise that a theme park will always expand on its land and they put certain issues behind them. Now the SOS will have to review the application (most likely) as I’m sure there are a quite a few applications like this, I think it will definitely go to the office of the Secretary of State and there will be a dedicated team for these issues. Looking for a December approval? Who knows, glad to see 2024 the council want it open by. When it does get referred to the SOS, there is a way to view the application status for the public, previous small cases have taken from 6 months to over a year to approve

I’d expect the environmental agency to still uphold their objections. Going to Secretary of State, will definitely push it to a 2025 opening.. Nether the less, I’m glad to see the council support this application fully and it will more than likely happen at some point. once that application is approved, can’t wait to relax

They really need some new attractions for next year and year after. If we were to see some sort of smaller ride we would have seen planning permission go in for a March opening. Unless they don’t need it? They could also be wanting to focus on exodus to prevent delays and detracting attention. Lost city rides are coming up to 20 years old, it’s always the same discussion. It’s a ticking time bomb, and the park will need multiple years of investment again.

Visited Thorpe Park today It was an off peak day with limited capacity on Colossus and Saw. DBGT was not operating (due to lack of actors I assume). it being so quiet, made me take a non-event day in. The park lacks consistency, music all over the place. The place looks dire everywhere aging, the overcast weather didn’t help. But certainly everywhere looked so old and dirty. This closed season, I really want them to focus on making the park consistent. Repairs to paint/wood work and theming. If I visited once a year on this day, I’d feel like Thorpe didn’t care and there was no atmosphere

Entry to creak freak will be via the normal old town entrance round the left side of “the grill” unit. For Project Exodus is clearly delayed, clearly not what they expected to happen. This is quite humiliating to open this area again, considering it was once said it was “closed”. The area has been cleaned up, clearly expected for the area to be ripped up into a building site. In a few months, it will be a whole year since the consultation. Is it going to happen? Has it been accounted for? Are Thorpe planning a backup?

I feel like if the council are minded to approve it still. The EA still highlight that they have to go to the Secretary of State (unless this is just a threat/lie and the council can approve it under a technicality) if they have to go to the government (over a relatively low investment project) then that’s going to be a long process.

Yeah this scare zone, isn’t exactly a normal one. It’s such a small short tight avenue, by the time you started you could be at the end. Having to knock on individual doors will make it so much slower ect ect. It will be like the crows scare zone, your kinda batched and released in waves. Is that a normal scare zone by definition? In my eyes a scare zone would be similar to the 2020 ones. also three scare attractions in that area? Is that a good idea…… on another note, no legacy type show? I know it wasn’t that popular but if they went for it and invested in a screen, it would have been better. just another show to add to the event..

Teased as “afraid of the dark?” Some sort of hooded experience?

Shame, seems like scare zones are slowly being reduced even though they are the free part of the event

Creek Freek Annoucement Creek Freak Massacre: The Final Cut is returning for its third and final year! Glad it’s been confirmed as the final year (and on a separate note, I’m glad that they are continuing to be confident on Exodus and preparing for it) Sad to see it go, it was possibly the maze which changed fright nights as we see it in its present day. It was a strong maze last year and imo the best.

I agree with you. I get these videos are made for the Fans but normal paying customers do see these videos too. Judging by last year, these will be the only trailers advertising what the experience is. Only true hardcore fans will know what video is what type of experience. Birthday bash is in a cafe, it’s actually on the stage. crows isnt in a shed creek freak roamers are in the park , not woodland

Natural England have today Withdrawn their objection(s) to project exodus. If I have got this correct, this is separate to the environment agency’s objection which relate more to flooding then anything else. One less hurdle and hopefully stuff starts to pick up as we reach September. Maybe a sign of things to come…. Or maybe not 😝

4th Announcement Tonight and probably the most interesting so far… Creek Freaks Unchained - Are now the roaming team. This is due to old town closing, glad to see them changing the roaming team. Also may suffer less abuse than the crows did. The buckwheats as a roaming team without their surroundings and music ect ect.. will be interesting. The crows did really work as a roaming team. I’m still pretty sure that creek freak massacre is returning (we’ve seen the sign return) but could have also run into some potential issues or concerns because of exodus or similar when the area was cut off. I’ve uploaded an image to a reply to a tweet, clearly done to stir up the community and keep hype going (I know, it’s worked) only 4 announcements so far, so it will continue. Creak Freak won’t be announced until next week now I assume..

Surprisingly, Black mirror gets decent length queues for the attraction. It’s never toooo long (30 mins max) it’s a good filler between main rides. Hatty and Hugos Birthday bash was announced on Friday. Kinda surprised to see the same show (meaning characters) return. I know there’s gonna be a new story. Just suprised, hopefully it’s turned into a bigger scare zone as last year it was a 15 min show and I’m not sure it’s what people want to stop and watch for that long at FN

Confirmation from Thorpe Park themselves. The Saw Alive Queue area is probably gonna be used.

Sorry for double post but it’s on the app under scare zones…

Caption says: Venture even deeper into the cursed village of Mawkin Meadow and unearth the origins of the infamous Crows😱 Trek carefully through the darkened fields of corn and hope your presence goes unnoticed👀 Definitely going to be more developed this year, possibly in a different location. Warwick castle do a scare zone but it’s more of a walkthrough. Could imagine a similar thing at Thorpe. I‘ m not too clued up on FN history, but is it normal to have the same kinda Characters year on year since 2020? Nice to see a new attraction each year, but will we see a completely new line up year on year?

Door 2 will be announced tonight, I’d place my bets on it being Creak Freak or Amity. unless I’m completely wrong.