Tony Sefton, the man behind the Paramount Park theme park development in north Kent

by Trevor Sturgess

The man in charge of the giant Paramount resort project designed his first amusement ride at the age of six.

Little did Tony Sefton know that his childhood creation of a cross between a roundabout and seesaw for his parents’ garden would lead to a successful career.

The garden ride was finally built when he was 13, but it had fuelled his love of amusement attractions.

After learning early engineering skills with Meccano and Lego, he went on to read engineering at the University of Exeter. “It was a natural progression when I took my degree to start designing things properly.”

Speaking for the first time since unveiling plans for the £2 billion Paramount resort on 872 acres of Swancombe Peninsula, Mr Sefton, 44, said his career in amusement rides had led to this biggest challenge.

His first job was with an amusement ride manufacturer.

A computer generated image of the Paramount Entertainment complex and other attractions on Swanscombe Peninsula

“I did fairground rides for the first few years of my career,” he said.

Some of his designs excited visitors to Alton Towers. “The rides got more ambitious and thrilling. We put rides all around Europe.”

After writing to the boss of the World Attractions Association, proposing the industry needed ways of predicting whether or not a ride would work, he decided to set up research business Vision XS with his wife.

“I’ve been putting rides together for 10 years and sometimes we get 10% increase and sometime 3%. I thought I would like some research into what factors drive these figures.”

Sefton and his wife put together a model which would be used by Olympic planners, theme parks and zoos, including animal parks at Port Lympne and Howletts.

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He looked at the way people circulated around the park and recommended changes to design, food outlets and exhibits that all led to a boost in visitor numbers.

He sees the new project, licensed by the Hollywood giant to his firm London Resort Company Holdings, as an opportunity to pioneer new ideas.

“It’s time the international resort had a new formula.

“We’re going to be as revolutionary as Disney was in the 1960s and 1970s.
“We plan to be the next radical step in the industry. That’s very exciting for us and very exciting for Kent.”

He is looking forward to opening day which, if the project is backed by enough finance and planning consents, will happen in 2018.

“Along with the rest of Kent, I will be over the moon. It promises one of the most exciting launch parties ever.”