Universal Great Britain - Speculation & Rumors

[rob@rar]

Council at one point asked anyone that had read all the documents to step forward, no-one did.

Honestly the fact people went into this without even giving the documents a good go over first is eye-opening. This is a project that will change your community in massive ways and you didn't even bother to take the time to see what exactly is being planned and how it relates to you and your area?

Reading all of the documents is a pretty tall order - has anyone here done that? I haven’t. But I agree that not reading any of the documents is a pretty poor show, especially if you hope to have any influence on the decisions regarding those documents. I’ve read the main planning document quite closely, then selected some of the annexes, especially around transport. That would have covered many of the questions which were asked this evening.

Yes, sadly that was something I tried to help them along with.

"Construction traffic will come through the village"

The entrance to the village:

View attachment 27387

55,000 people strolling about aimlessly when they either came in car, or via rail or coach.

I thought the guy who chaired the meeting was very poor. He could have corrected some of the incorrect assumptions, such as whether construction traffic will go through Stewartby (as you point out, it generally won’t).

 

[Dinosaurus]

Reading all of the documents is a pretty tall order - has anyone here done that? I haven’t. But I agree that not reading any of the documents is a pretty poor show, especially if you hope to have any influence on the decisions regarding those documents. I’ve read the main planning document quite closely, then selected some of the annexes, especially around transport. That would have covered many of the questions which were asked this evening.


I thought the guy who chaired the meeting was very poor. He could have corrected some of the incorrect assumptions, such as whether construction traffic will go through Stewartby (as you point out, it generally won’t).

To be fair, he had a battle on his hands. Lots of interruptions and scoffs. And at one point a round of applause from the Manor Road residents!

 

[JT01]

I am guessing on the grand scheme of things is a small minority who are now kicking up a fuss?

 

[Alicia]

I looked through them for two weeks solid and even I couldn’t come close to reading *all* of them. I at least skimmed through all 191 docs and read through all overviews though.

If I were local I’d have read through ones on noise, traffic, and construction timeline.

But the documents seem to be organized in a purposefully confusing way, disorganized to discourage reading them I swear. The most important ones are in the last section. But they reference appendixes and figures in the middle sections, constantly. So just reading one document you may have to open several others in completely different sections just to see the tables or maps the text is referencing.

 

[Jake S]

But the documents seem to be organized in a purposefully confusing way, disorganized to discourage reading them I swear.

Boy, I sure do find that hard to believe! Almost like the people writing them want to discourage residents and lawmakers from reading them!

 

[Dinosaurus]

There were maybe 40 people there, and the concerns came from the same ~10 people.

 

[Altonsky]

Council at one point asked anyone that had read all the documents to step forward, no-one did.

Honestly the fact people went into this without even giving the documents a good go over first is eye-opening. This is a project that will change your community in massive ways and you didn't even bother to take the time to see what exactly is being planned and how it relates to you and your area?

People expect to be spoon fed information

 

[EllieB]

To be fair, he had a battle on his hands. Lots of interruptions and scoffs. And at one point a round of applause from the Manor Road residents!

Local councillors are not exactly trained to handle big controversial topics in council meetings, I'm sure he did his best!

I looked through them for two weeks solid and even I couldn’t come close to reading *all* of them. I at least skimmed through all 191 docs and read through all overviews though.

If I were local I’d have read through ones on noise, traffic, and construction timeline.

But the documents seem to be organized in a purposefully confusing way, disorganized to discourage reading them I swear. The most important ones are in the last section. But they reference appendixes and figures in the middle sections, constantly. So just reading one document you may have to open several others in completely different sections just to see the tables or maps the text is referencing.

Same, I'm still working through them and there's loads I haven't read yet. They're incredibly wordy too, they're not written to encourage people to read them at all.

 

[yepthatguy]

People expect to be spoon fed information

The writing was on the wall as soon as a universal confirmed they had bought the land in my opinion.

It’s been on the local news websites, the bbc local news site, on TV on Look East, and on the internet like face book / forums and national news outlets ever since it’s been announced, and even a in person branded consultation where locals could talk directly to top Universal staff ever since it was announced. I took that opportunity to talk to them, and found out everything I needed to know pretty much that day.

For some reason it seems people have waited until now in a vain hope the traditional British process of not being happy and complaining to the local councillor and then the MP to “get something done” would still be the way of the world.

Sadly for them this project was never going to be that way, and it was outlined that this would be the case from the beginning.

People were complaining about the height, yet hadn’t looked up that the incinerator and wind turbine are roughly the same height, one spits out fumes, the other clatters birds.

It’s like some people just woke up. Very odd.

 

[xtpower]

The writing was on the wall as soon as a universal confirmed they had bought the land in my opinion.

It’s been on the local news websites, the bbc local news site, on TV on Look East, and on the internet like face book / forums and national news outlets ever since it’s been announced, and even a in person branded consultation where locals could talk directly to top Universal staff ever since it was announced. I took that opportunity to talk to them, and found out everything I needed to know pretty much that day.

For some reason it seems people have waited until now in a vain hope the traditional British process of not being happy and complaining to the local councillor and then the MP to “get something done” would still be the way of the world.

Sadly for them this project was never going to be that way, and it was outlined that this would be the case from the beginning.

People were complaining about the height, yet hadn’t looked up that the incinerator and wind turbine are roughly the same height, one spits out fumes, the other clatters birds.

It’s like some people just woke up. Very odd.

There were some who claimed the council had sided with Universal in regards to home purchases. The council clearly stated they don't get involved in that sorta thing. But I think the residents (likely Manor Road) aren't pissed about that but pissed the council didn't tell Universal to do one when they bought land - they don't want it to happen at all. They likely didn't bother to go to the consultations and read any of the easily accessible info because they probs thought it'd never happen cos it's Britain and these projects never get off the ground.

Only if they had gone to the consultations and did some reading they would've long realised that this would very probably happen.

 

[Chessy]

The writing was on the wall as soon as a universal confirmed they had bought the land in my opinion.

People were complaining about the height, yet hadn’t looked up that the incinerator and wind turbine are roughly the same height, one spits out fumes, the other clatters birds.

It’s like some people just woke up. Very odd.

World moaning championships goes to the British NIMBY

I just think some of them are in their own little world.

 

[LieutLaww]

The Manor Road people that are left are only complaining loudly now to try and squeeze as much out of Universal as they can, the whole we have been forgotten headlines in the papers is utter rubbish tbh.

 

[masekwm]

The Manor Road people that are left are only complaining loudly now to try and squeeze as much out of Universal as they can, the whole we have been forgotten headlines in the papers is utter rubbish tbh.

They’ve been to the police about drones use and I’m told that they complained the officer that was there last night that I was filming, I gave them the chance to speak to me and even said if they let me know which photos of their property were causing concern then I’d remove them.

They decided to reply with the BBC recording it that I’d been sending her naughty voice notes

I walked off with them demanding my name, don’t tell her Pike, and shouts of all Manor Road to be removed.

It reminded me that I need some new footage of the housing before the bulldozers arrive

 

[yepthatguy]

They’ve been to the police about drones use and I’m told that they complained the officer that was there last night that I was filming, I gave them the chance to speak to me and even said if they let me know which photos of their property were causing concern then I’d remove them.

They decided to reply with the BBC recording it that I’d been sending her naughty voice notes

I walked off with them demanding my name, don’t tell her Pike, and shouts of all Manor Road to be removed.

It reminded me that I need some new footage of the housing before the bulldozers arrive

What on earth happened? Naughty voice notes. I’m guessing it all kicked off!

 

[LieutLaww]

As others have said they are trying to shout loudly enough so the British way of things kicks in and it stops, until the compulsory purchase order drops through their letter boxes anyway lol

 

[xtpower]

They’ve been to the police about drones use and I’m told that they complained the officer that was there last night that I was filming, I gave them the chance to speak to me and even said if they let me know which photos of their property were causing concern then I’d remove them.

They decided to reply with the BBC recording it that I’d been sending her naughty voice notes

I walked off with them demanding my name, don’t tell her Pike, and shouts of all Manor Road to be removed.

It reminded me that I need some new footage of the housing before the bulldozers arrive

The drone use complaint reeks of Main Character syndrome, if you've watched any video with drones, 99% of the footage is covering the Core Zone or the concrete slab. There's been no videos I've seen that specifically target those houses - hell @ProjectUniversal makes it a point to not intentionally film the houses.

Was it that woman who made the claims of the rogue Universal Agent throwing round threats that targeted you?

 

[masekwm]

What on earth happened? Naughty voice notes. I’m guessing it all kicked off!

They have raised concerns so I offered a discussion where she could say I have a kid I don’t want my garden filmed or whatever, don’t include my house.

We went outside and the BBC woman followed and she was pretty much shouting “you don’t believe I’ve not had an offer”, “I’ve had voice notes and you sound like them”

She’s clearly very stressed about the situation. I was tempted to report her for Anti social behaviour in retaliation but I just walked off, annoyingly I had to walk for 15 minutes as I was waiting for a lift home

 

[rob@rar]

I looked through them for two weeks solid and even I couldn’t come close to reading *all* of them. I at least skimmed through all 191 docs and read through all overviews though.

If I were local I’d have read through ones on noise, traffic, and construction timeline.

But the documents seem to be organized in a purposefully confusing way, disorganized to discourage reading them I swear. The most important ones are in the last section. But they reference appendixes and figures in the middle sections, constantly. So just reading one document you may have to open several others in completely different sections just to see the tables or maps the text is referencing

That’s a heroic effort. I can’t even say I’ve skim read them, the best that I can offer is that I’ve scrolled through every page but I’m sure there’s loads of little nuggets of info I missed doing that. For example, I missed the stuff in the water drainage section that you highlighted in your recent video, which offers more of a clue about how the Core Zone will be used than other documents.

I agree it’s fiendishly difficult to read across the entire pack of documents (and some of the technical stuff is difficult to comprehend for non-experts). But I’m not sure this is deliberate, more a function of pulling together reports from a large number of consultants, advisers and statutory bodies. It really is a huge body of work, which has been conducted over at least a couple of years or longer. I do find it amazing that almost none of this leaked out to the fan community. At the same time as some people were posting comments on this forum that it was all a fake and would never happen (Hi Doug), all this work was going on in the background, from Master Planning the theme park to working out the position of drainage ditches and everything in between.