Organising a consultation for local residents takes a lot of effort, as any public relations guru will tell you.

The ones working for developers of the London Paramount resort must have rolled their eyes as their meticulously-crafted information boards were skimmed over at its latest exhibitions in favour of a scale model of what the £2 billion tourist attraction might look like.

“People spend the first five minutes working out where they live and then raise questions,” joked David Testa, director at London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), the firm hoping to develop the resort, which they say will create 27,000 jobs.

Like bees swarming around a hive, people gather at the model to see where the water park, hotels, car parks and theme park will fit in around the marshland on the Swanscombe Peninsula between Gravesend and Dartford.

The big question from local people, time and again, is about traffic, to which the developers think they have a solid answer. They have unveiled two options for an access road from the A2, which they say will not interfere with local traffic by the time the resort opens in 2020.

About 40,000 people are expected to visit each day, of which about 65% are expected to use the roads. So what happens if there is an accident on the A2?

“We will suffer, as will everyone else,” said Mr Testa at the opening consultation in Gravesend’s Old Town Hall last month. “There is nothing we can do about that.

“What has got to happen is there has to be some joined up thinking by us, the local planning authorities, Kent County Council and the Ebbsfleet Urban Development Corporation.

“We need to see what improvements can be made to the local road network in the area and we will have an upgrade to Ebbsfleet junction.

“Also there is the Lower Thames Crossing debate which needs to be finalised.

“Our assumptions are that 65% of visitors will use the roads, which we will want to get down and encourage people to use the railways and the river.”

Aside from traffic, the other tricky issue facing LRCH is its negotiations with more than 50 businesses who will be forced to move by the development.

Its land agent JLL is holding the talks with firms, with a multi-million pound budget set aside for compensation.

“We are in contact with nearly everyone within our purchase boundary which we will need to buy out,” said Mr Testa.

“We are working with JLL so that later this year we can take those conversations a step further and start talking to people about buying them out.

“Some people want to sell up and retire. Some people want to be relocated and one or two are difficult to relocate because they may struggle to get licences in a different location.

“We will be in discussions with them about compensating for their loss of business. That’s the sensitivity.”

Under its status as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, Paramount’s developers will be able to apply for a Development Consent Order from government, giving them the power to force businesses to leave the area using what’s called a compulsory purchase order (CPO).

If they had to, they would initiate these procedures after getting planning approval, which they anticipate to happen by winter next year.

Mr Testa added: “CPO is an absolute last resort. One or two people may hold out for it but the vast majority of the 50 companies we’re talking to are very agreeable about talking to us.

“These businesses have been through this with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link before. We want to move as quickly as we can to mitigate what could be a blight on people’s future livelihood.”

The documents, plans and maps showing the nature and location of the proposed application can be viewed for free until Friday, June 5, at public buildings around Dartford, Gravesham and the neighbouring boroughs.

Comments must be submitted by the same date. Details at www.londonparamount.info