New theme park ride to go ahead
Windsor: Legoland proposal overcomes greenbelt fears
A new ‘headline ride’ is set to open at Legoland theme park next year after plans were given the go ahead by the council.
Councillors unanimously voted to approve the application which sought to change the location of a previously approved plan to another area of the park.
The theme park now has permission to build two new rides, play equipment and both hard and soft landscaping in the Adventure Land section of the resort.
Speaking at the Windsor Area Development Management Panel at York House on Wednesday, Legoland park operations director Chris Ivan said: “We continue to look to refresh our offer to attract the next generation of young visitors.”
Plans include an indoor ride which will cater to visitors throughout the year.
The relocation of the plans to a ‘more sensitive part’ of the park forced Legoland to submit a new application as the construction was now considered an inappropriate development in the greenbelt.
However councillors agreed that the economic benefits from the application, which is set to create about 20 full-time jobs, would outweigh any harm to the greenbelt.
Addressing the panel, Cllr Wisdom Da Costa (WWRA, Clewer & Dedworth West) said: “I’m a big fan of Legoland, my five-year-old grandson adores it but looking at what’s been presented two things cause me a problem.
“One is that this is being built on open grassland and secondly, if you do relocate a building the existing biodiversity will suffer as the tree officers have said the current layout is poor in relation to veteran trees.”
He added: “But on the other hand there are lots of positives.”
Cllr John Bowden (Con, Eton and Castle) said: “Yes I can understand there is creep into the greenbelt, there is some remodelling of what they wanted but it is still a planning permission which should go ahead.”
Construction is expected to begin this summer with the new attraction ready for the 2021 season.
■ Councillors were also due to discuss the use of land in Datchet Common as a gypsy and traveller site but this application was withdrawn before the meeting.