London Paramount bosses have announced the planned entertainment resort's proposed opening date will be pushed back to 2021.
CEO of the resort, planned for the Swanscombe Peninsula, David Testa, announced that a planning application for the site which is set to host a theme park, water park, hotel rooms and a business centre will be presented to the Planning Inspectorate in summer next year.
The application was originally planned to be presented this autumn.
An image of what London Paramount could look like
Mr Testa also announced that if planning permission is granted the resort, overseen by London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), will open in 2021.
The £3.2bn resort was originally set to open at Easter 2020.
Mr Testa said: "We have and will continue to carry out further environmental and transport studies to guarantee a robust Development Consent Order application, ensuring we get both the business and masterplan right while giving consideration to matters raised during the consultation process.
London Paramount CEO, David Testa
"In light of our ongoing studies and detailed discussions with the Planning Inspectorate and local authorities, we have decided to give ourselves a bit more time to do this and to revise our submission date for the Development Consent Order.
"It is critical that the application for London Paramount is comprehensive when we present it to the Planning Inspectorate and so we have decided to submit the application in mid-2016.
"This will see the Entertainment Resort open in 2021.”
Following a fourth round of public consultation events it has also been announced that London Paramount will carry out a number of environmental studies to be reviewed by local authorities, the Environment Agency and Natural England.
An image of what London Paramount could look like
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London Paramount is also proposing to build a new dedicated access road from the A2 into the entertainment resort that separates all visitor traffic from local traffic.
The new road would be delivered before the opening of the resort in 2021.
During construction, most materials will be delivered to site and waste removed from site using the river to avoid disruption on the local road network.
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