Organisers of the UK Theme Park Awards have described the proposed Universal resort as “significant for the entire industry”.

The US firm submitted plans to the government to get permission to build a theme park at Kempston Hardwick, near Bedford, which is expected to attract 8.5 million visitors annually.

Laurence Roots, founder of the awards ceremony held at Wicksteed Park in Northamptonshire, said the project would be “unlike anything else that we have got here at the moment.”

He added: “There will be people from across Europe, in fact the world, that will travel to the UK to visit that Universal park and they won’t just go to the Universal resort.”