The chairman of the company spearheading the multi-billion pound London Resort theme park project has quit.

But the out-going executive insists the prospects for the resort “remain good” despite being just the latest in a long line of senior figures quitting the team pushing the proposals.

The London Resort was first announced in 2012, promising to bring a slice of Disneyland to the Swanscombe Peninsula between Dartford and Gravesend. Amid a host of extravagant thrill rides would be thousands of hotel rooms, restaurants, live entertainment venues as well as jobs for tens of thousands of people. It was originally earmarked to open in 2019.

But 12 years later, the project has spent more than £100 million with precious little to show for it.

Now Steve Norris, chairman of London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) - the company behind the ambitious scheme - has stood down.

Mr Norris is a former Transport Minister during John Major’s tenure as Prime Minister, and twice a Tory candidate for London Mayor.

He has been on the board since 2014.

Speaking to KentOnline, he said: “There’s no story behind my decision.

“I simply have too much other work on and there’s not going to be anything happening for a while as the legal action between London Resort and Paramount grinds on.”

US entertainment giant Paramount is currently locked in a legal battle with LRCH.

It came after LRCH - primarily backed by a wealthy Kuwati investment fund - went into administration last year.

Read a full in-depth examination of the London Resort scheme here.

It then struck what is known as a CVA - companies voluntary agreement - an arrangement where the struggling company agrees to those it owes money to either extended or reduced payment terms or some other agreed solution to allow it to continue to operate.

In the case of LRCH, the majority of creditors voted to accept a stakeholding in the company in exchange. However, Paramount – the Hollywood movie studio which had originally lent its name to the project before pulling the plug on that deal – wasn’t happy with the agreement and, in November, announced it was to take High Court action.

That further slammed the brakes on any progress as it challenged the CVA.

In addition, it emerged at the end of last year that Universal Studios had initiated plans for a huge theme park in Bedford - fuelling the suggestion it could usurp the London Resort plans.

A spokesperson for Universal Destinations and Experiences explained: “We are in the very early stages of exploring the possibility of a potential park and resort experience in Bedford.

“Whilst our parent company, Comcast Corporation, has purchased a parcel of land near Bedford, we are only at the beginning of our feasibility study as part of our evaluation of potential sites. It may well, therefore, be many months before we decide whether this potential project will proceed.”

Adds the out-going LRCH chairman, Steve Norris, whose company acts as a consultant to a host of major projects: “My own view is that if Universal had a choice between Bedford or Ebbsfleet they’d immediately want Ebbsfleet. I reckon Paramount think the same.

“So the prospects for an entertainment resort in Kent remain good. The US players know the UK is the obvious place for a European facility on this scale and the HS1 [High Speed One] line is a huge advantage.”

In the summer of 2019, the project appointed PY Gerbeau as its chief executive. He was famed for transforming the fortunes of the Millennium Dome in 2000 - a project which ultimately would morph into the O2 Arena in Greenwich - and was a senior executive at Disneyland Paris.

After making numerous statements of intent - including saying “to all the naysayers and doom-mongers the London Resort is going ahead, as planned” - by December 2022 he had quit.

Since then the project - defined as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), which means the ultimate decision as to its planning success or otherwise is determined by the minister of state - has faced a host of hurdles.

Perhaps most significantly are environmental concerns over the Swanscombe site it planned to occupy.

When Gerbeau quit, the company confirmed its plans were to be “significantly” scaled back. Having pulled its original plans in 2022, it has, to date, not submitted a revised version.

All of which leaves the project in a continued state of limbo.

As one industry insider close to the scheme revealed to us in December: “It’s not dead, but it would be fair to say it’s probably on life-support.”