THE land of a former top Lancashire entertainment attraction has been valued at nearly £800m.

Together Money, who offer mortgage and loan products, have picked out eight abandoned spaces around the world that can offer opportunities for developers and they have tried to work out how much money the sites could fetch if planning permission was approved and the land sold.

Only one of the sites is in England and the former Camelot Theme Park in Charnock Richard was the one they chose to calculate how many 90m squared apartments could fit on the total area.

Camelot closed in 2012 and it is estimated that 6,294 apartments could be built on the 140 acre site and they could have an average price of £126,000 which leads to a potential value for the site at £793,016,000.

In their analysis of the site, Together Money bosses said: “Inspired by the legend of Camelot, the UK theme park located three miles from Chorley opened its doors in 1983 and operated until November 2012 when due to declining visitor numbers the park closed for good.

“Whilst certain rollercoasters were sold to theme parks around Europe, many of the rides remain abandoned seven years later. ‘Urban explorers’, whilst warned off the site, are regularly found walking the tracks of the decaying rollercoasters, avoiding the 24/7 security that roam the perimeter.

Several planning applications for housing estates have been submitted and subsequently rejected by Chorley Council, the most recent in March 2018.”

Cllr Alan Whittaker, who represents the Chisnall ward which includes Charnock Richard, believes the idea is ‘ridiculous’.

He said: “Story Homes have applied for homes on this site on two occasions and have been knocked down by the planning department on the grounds of Charnock Richard being on greenbelt.

“There is no need for it and they have also tried to put industrial units.

“What people need to realise is that homes would need to be served by infrastructure.

“There is a paved road to the area which is not good enough for that number of properties.

“There is no need to be talking about and Chorley Council have shown that the area is not needed in their Local Plan for housing.

“So there is no requirement for it as it would quadruple the size of Charnock Richard and Heskin.

“It is ridiculous that some person has decided to come up with these figures of the potential value of land.

“It is quite nice when people think of the film Camelot as some sort of paradise with nice music and costume and people might think it would be beautiful to have so many properties but the residents of Charnock Richard, Heskin and Euxton will think of it being undesirable and it would be hell.”