A major business park set to create jobs and drive innovation is finally getting ready for take-off.

The Innovation Park Medway is seen as a key cog in breathing new commercial life into north Kent and will be officially launched on Tuesday, September 18.

Sited at Rochester Airport, the land will see 100,000sq-metres of business office space created and sit alongside the existing Innovation Centre which opened in the summer of 2017 and has already attracted a host of tenants.

A long-time part of Medway’s strategic plan going forward, this marks a major milestone

The latest development comes as a planning application for the much-discussed redevelopment of the airport is submitted - liberating the land required by the council to push ahead with the project.

Cllr Alan Jarrett, leader of Medway Council, explained: “Innovation Park Medway offers high-value technology, engineering, manufacturing and knowledge-intensive companies the opportunity to grow in a bespoke commercial development with a collaborative business environment.

“Medway is perfectly placed to attract the both best and brightest minds and provide employment opportunities to make Innovation Park Medway an outstanding success and blueprint for the future.”

“Medway is perfectly placed to attract the both best and brightest minds and provide employment opportunities to make Innovation Park Medway an outstanding success and blueprint for the future.”

With tie-ups with the local universities, and the creation of jobs and relocation of firms, it is hoped the site, when complete, will become a major commercial hub for Medway.

The site makes up a third of the North Kent Enterprise Zone.

Offering a host of benefits, included reduced business rates, superfast broadband connections and simplified planning regulations, the enterprise zone also encompasses the Kent Medical Campus in Maidstone and the Ebbsfleet Garden City project.

The first tenant on the park is the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance which shifted its operations base from Marden, near Maidstone.

At the launch event, the council will unveil further plans for the site and additional developments.

The airport will remain fully operational while the work takes place.

Initial works at Innovation Park Medway will be funded by an £8.1 million allocation from the government’s Local Growth Fund, through the South East Local Enterprise Partnership.

The plans are set to go out for consultation.