£20m gamble of Bear Grylls’ new adventure park
Adventurer gets go-ahead to open Birmingham theme park directly in path of planned HS2 rail link
BEAR GRYLLS is known for taking risks in his television adventures, but the presenter may be taking his biggest gamble yet with his plans to open a £20 million theme park directly in the path of a planned rail link to HS2.
The Bear Grylls Adventure will open next autumn with thrill-seeking activities including scuba diving, indoor skydiving, Europe’s highest free-roam high ropes, and zip-lining from a Chinook helicopter.
But the park’s backer, Merlin, has admitted the park may have to partially close after its grand opening if the rail link from Birmingham Interchange, the station providing direct links to London and Birmingham International Airport, via the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), gets the go-ahead.
Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph reveal a long planning battle as the proposed site by the NEC falls within an HS2 safeguarding zone, meaning the construction of the track gets priority over any other development.
Concerns were first raised in Dec 2016 when HS2 planners working on the line said it had issues with some of the proposals – notably for the high ropes course and a skydiving structure.
But Merlin, which owns Alton Towers and Legoland, has finally got the stamp of approval from Solihull metropolitan borough council – as long as it facilitates the construction of the overhead line (which runs over the top of buildings, much like a monorail) when the time comes.
Merlin says the rail line in the long term will make the attraction easier to access and enjoy. The company will get two months’ notice prior to any work beginning, so it can either take down attractions or relocate them to unaffected areas of the park.
Grylls, who has starred in a number of TV survival programmes, including Man Vs Wild, is aware of the conditions Merlin has agreed to.
He said he’s excited to finally bring the project to reality, adding: “In this place you can dive, you can fly, you can ice climb, you can take on some seriously high ropes, all supported by expert guides and instructors. It really is bringing adventure to life indoors like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
The park takes inspiration from terrains, mountains and deserts around the world, including the boulders of Fontainebleau in France to the vertical face of El Capitan in Yosemite. Visitors will pay a £25 entry fee to “Base Camp” to take on a number of challenges.
Merlin says the park has created 25 full-time jobs, and 90 staff will be needed at its busiest periods. Grylls, the Chief Scout in the UK, was involved in each step of the attraction’s development, drawing on his own experiences.
An HS2 spokesperson said: “We have worked closely with the NEC Group and operator Merlin to support the development of the adventure park and to ensure that it can continue to operate in a way that does not compromise the construction and operation of Britain’s new high-speed rail network.”