SOUTHEND United has made a fresh pitch to secure permission for a new stadium and retail park at Fossetts Farm - but says this is its final offer.

The Blues and Sainsbury’s, which will bankroll much of the scheme, have upped their proposed sweetener for Southend Council from £2.25million to £3.5million.

The figure is still a big reduction on the £6million fund, designed to appease town centre businesses, which was originally agreed when a deal was first struck in 2008.

However, both the club and the supermarket say they cannot afford to offer any more without “fatally undermining” the plans.

In a letter to the council, Blues chairman Ron Martin and Robert Oxley, Sainsbury’s development surveyor, said: “Put simply, there is no longer £6million available to put towards the regeneration of the town centre.

“If the council wants the inter-linked developments at Fossetts Farm, Roots Hall and London Road to be delivered, it will have to be realistic and commercially astute in what it takes for town centre improvements.”

The Blues were forced to reapply for planning permission for the Fossetts Farm project last year because the previous arrangement had expired.

However, Mr Martin took the opportunity to try to scrap the £6million sweetener entirely, claiming he could not afford it following the economic downturn.

After talking to council officers, he agreed to pay £2.25million, but councillors were still unhappy about that sum and whether it could mitigate the impact a retail park might wreak on the town centre when they met before Christmas.

They deferred a decision until Sainsbury’s and the club could come up with a better offer - which they now have.

The latest deal would offer £500,000 up front, and then staggered payments as parts of the retail park, stadium and attached hotel open for business.

It is thought building work could start within weeks if the council’s development control committee accepts the new deal.