The £42M Earth Centre opened in 1999 and closed to the public in 2004

The Earth Centre opened near Doncaster in April 1999 as a millennium project to show people how to live sustainably, built on the site of a former colliery. It cost about £42 million, funded by the Millennium Commission, the European Commission, English Partnerships, landfill-tax credits and private money.

The visitors did not come. The centre was expected to attract 500,000 people in its first year but only about 80,000 came through the gates, and still fewer arrived in later years than the project's backers had banked on.

By 2003 it was obvious the visitor targets were not being met, and in September 2004 the attraction closed to the public apart from pre-booked school parties. At the end of October 2004 the centre was put into the hands of administrators.

Doncaster Council briefly explored taking it over but abandoned the rescue, and the site's maintenance is said to have cost the council about £200,000 a year until it was sold to an educational firm in 2011. A £42 million experiment in sustainability ended as a cautionary tale about forecasting an audience.