One of the UK’s biggest ports is expanding its workforce by a quarter after the construction of a £30 million berth was completed.

Peel Ports Group made the announcement this week during a tour of its site in Sheerness.

Today, KentOnline can exclusively reveal the firm, which employs more than 200 people at the London Medway port, will be offering 50 “highly-skilled” jobs over the course of this year.

These include roles in engineering, stevedoring – the process of loading and unloading cargo onto and off of ships – and general plant and cargo operations.

The news comes as the 450-acre port showed off its new roll-on roll-off (RoRo) berth for the first time before it becomes operational on Monday (June 16).

Construction of the RoRo began in March following the investment announcement in November.

Peel Ports said it was completed on schedule and to budget.

When contractors used floating cranes to drive steel piles into the seabed, “loud banging” and “thumping noises” were heard across Sheppey, which sparked online speculation from residents.

Now finished, it will increase the capacity for cargo holding, and caters for larger ships which exceed 230m in length.

David Huck, chief operating officer of Peel Ports Group, spoke to KentOnline in the revamped IslandWorks Dockyard Church just outside the port, following a tour of the premises.

The 49-year-old said: “For me, the great positive thing is the amount of new jobs we're creating here at Sheerness and that's really exciting, particularly for the next generation.

“I think a lot of people don't realise what actually goes on behind the dock wall, which is a lot different from the perception of our business.

“We offer fantastic careers, modern apprenticeships, great career platform.”

In the next year, the port is also looking to recommence the port's use of the railway line.

Mr Huck explained: “Sheerness port has always been rail-connected for many, many decades, but we haven't run any trains in and out of the port infrastructure for quite some time now.

“But our plan is to develop a new rail infrastructure for the port.

“It will connect Sheerness with a wider UK network so we can penetrate further the natural hinterland of Sheerness back into the Midlands and Greater London.

“It will offer a modal solution rather than just the pure truck and trailer operation. That's at the front and centre of our plans going forward.”

The news follows the port beginning a new service in partnership with Finnlines, which runs a route between Finland, Holland, Belgium, Poland and Spain.

The Finnish company said it had chosen the port because of its short sea connection to the Continent, its well-developed infrastructure and its proximity to London.

Three of its 238-metre-long ships, which can carry a maximum of 14,000 tonnes of cargo, are stopping at Sheerness every three weeks.

The port plays a crucial role in driving supply chains across the country – particularly for the automotive industry – with 300,000 vehicles being processed at the site each year.

It also brings in bananas, paper reels and timber, construction machinery and building materials, project cargo, agribulks [goods such as animal feed and grain] and steel.

Both Volkswagen and CEVA use Sheerness as the primary location for their southern UK operations.

The port is on the site of the former Royal Navy base, which closed in 1960 after serving Britain's maritime forces for more than 300 years.

Read more: Dockyard disaster: how closure shattered an entire community

During its history, it played a vital role in Operation Dynamo, which saw hundreds of thousands of British troops rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk in the Second World War.

Read more: Dunkirk remembered: Sheppey’s ‘forgotten’ role in Operation Dynamo

The docks were set up in the mid-seventeenth century when Britain was engaged in a naval war with the Dutch.