Puy du Fou Bicester: Theme park firm submits planning application for £600m attraction in Oxfordshire countryside - when would it open?
Puy du Fou has submitted an outline planning application to Cherwell District Council for a £600 million park near Bicester.
If approved, the new park will open in phases beginning in 2029. By the time the park is fully developed it will directly employ around 2,000 people, support a further 6,000 jobs in hotels, restaurants, suppliers and other local businesses, and deliver a £500m a year boost to the local and regional economy.
An estimated 1.47 million visitors a year will eventually walk through a beautiful, wooded park with stunning landscaped gardens, and immerse themselves in British history by visiting four period villages and 13 live shows. There will also be three hotels, each themed to different periods in British history, and a state-of-the-art conference centre, which will be open on demand all year round.
The proposals also include extensive landscaping and planting, with new ponds, lakes and gardens, as well as over 5 km of new hedgerows, 40 acres of biodiverse and species-rich wildflower meadows, and 20,000 new trees being planted to join with the existing woodland to create the first new 50 acre forest in Cherwell for generations. Olivier Strebelle, CEO of Puy du Fou, said:“We have only submitted these plans after an extensive consultation, which took over a year and included six in-person events and over 250 individual meetings, all of which have helped to shape our final proposals.
“We did not rush our consultation because we wanted to get our proposals right. We have wanted to come to the UK for many years. Britain has such a rich, colourful and exciting history, and the site we have chosen near Bicester is the ideal location to create a world-class destination that will bring that history to life.
“This will be a £600 million investment in the local economy over the next ten years and will create thousands of jobs, but it will also have the environment and sustainability at its heart.” Puy du Fou was established in France in 1978, and was joined by a second destination in Toledo, Spain in 2021. The two parks have won 25 global awards in the last five years.