Environment
Site status
The site is not in the Green Belt nor within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (now called National Landscapes). It does not contain any designated heritage assets (such as listed buildings, scheduled monuments or registered parks or gardens) nor is it located near to any conservation areas. The nearest designated heritage assets are two Grade II listed buildings more than 350m to the north of the site boundary. Designated heritage assets will therefore not be impacted to any material degree.
Ecology
A full Environmental Assessment is being prepared and will be submitted with the planning application. However, the majority of the site has been intensively farmed for many years and our surveys demonstrate that it thus has limited ecological value. As a result, there are opportunities for us to deliver a significant increase in biodiversity and wildlife habitats.
Twelve Acre Copse, a locally important wildlife site, two areas of ancient woodland (Great Copse and Nettle Copse) are within the site and will be completely protected by our proposals. The Tusmore and Shellswell Park Conservation Target Area (CTA) also covers the site and the proposed development respects the aims and nature of the CTA.
We will be creating the first new forest in Cherwell for generations which will cover 50 acres. Over the full development, we will be retaining 95% of the existing trees and planting around 20,000 new trees. We are in discussion with local partners to potentially offset some of its carbon impact through our tree planting programme.
We will be retaining 80% of the existing hedgerows and planting over 5 miles of new hedgerows. We will also be creating over 40 acres of new species-rich and wildflower meadow.
There is therefore a wonderful opportunity to deliver significant Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), particularly through better management of the ancient woodland and the creation of new habitats from tree planting, landscaping and boundary planting.

Artist's impression of Puy du Fou UK

Image of Puy du Fou France
Puy du Fou France: tree canopy before development and today


Waste
We will build our own waste recycling centre so that 99% of all waste is sorted and processed onsite and, working with local partners, fed into the local recycling chain.
Surface water / flooding
Harvested rainwater will be used to irrigate the gardens and maintain the new lakes and water features. It is intended to capture rainwater from building roof areas and provide sufficient water storage to meet this requirement.
New detention basins and water features will store in excess of 90,000m3 of rainfall water – enough to manage flows up to a once in a century event, which includes an additional 40% buffer to allow for future climate change.
As we will be controlling the peak discharge of all surface water rainfall events from our site within our boundary, any negative impact our site has had locally will be nullified.
Foul water
A specialist onsite water treatment plant will be built at the northern end of the site, which means all sewage will be treated onsite, with the treated water used for irrigation of the gardens and the rest of the byproducts recycled for agricultural use.
Light
During our closed season (November – March) most of the park will be dark.
During our open season (April – October) the park will largely be dark in the evenings, with low level lighting used both to maintain the atmosphere and sense of authenticity within the park and to avoid light being visible from nearby villages.
The only significant source of light after dark will be the night show, which is predictable and manageable and ends at the latest two hours after sunset. (For much of the season it is earlier than that as we run the show for 75 mins after dusk). However, this show will be located at the far northwest of the site, distant to all three main villages.

Examples of low level lighting used at Puy du Fou France
Pyrotechnics/drones
We use some limited pyrotechnics and drones for our night shows, but these are new generation, low altitude and low impact, nothing like a typical New Year’s Eve or Bonfire Night display. We adapt our shows to local circumstances which vary considerably from France, Spain and the UK.
Energy
Our energy needs are in fact very countercyclical to normal grid demand; we need less power in winter and more in summer, due to our open and closed periods.
Locally there is not sufficient electricity in the grid right now. But the local energy providers, with whom we have already extensively engaged, have considerable work in progress/planned that will increase the local grid capacity by 2031.
We will be using conventional power with solar panels generating significant extra energy. In winter, our site will often be a net contributor to the grid.
We are exploring a connection to the Ardley Energy Recovery Facility, to utilise its excess energy, but this may not prove commercially and operationally viable as well as considering our aspirations for a low carbon development.