Paramount resort developers have bought about 18 acres of land as they continues to take control of the area needed to build a £3.2 billion theme park, hotels and roads.

Sites known as Bamber Pit and Sports Ground in Swanscombe have been snapped up in a deal which is the first actual purchase of land needed for the project, known as London Paramount.

It adds to an agreement made last year by the project’s developers London Resort Company Holdings to eventually buy 388 acres around the Swanscombe Peninsula owned by Lafarge Tarmac.

The Bamber Pit is a former landfill site of just under nine acres south of the North Kent Railway Line. The Sports Ground site, covering a little over nine acres, is to the north of the tracks.

Developers, funded by the Kuwaiti owners of Ebbsfleet United football club, hope the resort will be open by Easter 2020 and say it will create 27,000 jobs.

London Paramount director David Testa said: “With this agreement in place, the vision for North Kent as the home of a nationally significant, multi-billion pound entertainment resort employing thousands of people is moving another step closer to becoming a reality.

“It further underlies our commitment to delivering the project and is welcome news as we continue to consult and engage with the local Dartford and Gravesham communities near the site and more widely with our interested parties.”

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