SHOEBURY has gained a health centre but lost education funding in a new agreement drawn up between the council and developers.

Garrison Developments was granted permission to build 172 homes, office blocks, and a health centre on a flood plain between Barge Pier Road and Ness Road in Old Gunners Park last month on the condition it signed a Section 106 agreement with the council, which has now been made public.

Garrison’s original plans for the site, which were rejected by councillors last year, included a 106 agreement for £970,000 to be spent on flood defences, £1.5million to be spent on primary education, and £16,000 to be spent on bus stops – but only the commitment to flood defences has survived.

Shoebury councillor Mike Assenheim said he was pleased the matter had been concluded but expressed concerns about how education infrastructure would cope with the new homes.

He said: “We definitely need more school places with the rising population in Shoebury. I said this back in 2000 when the new Hinguar School was being proposed but they all said the population wasn’t going to go up that much – well it did.

“That said, we don’t yet know what kind of people will be moving into the development, whether they are families with young children or not.”

The negotiations were conducted last month at a time when the developers were refusing to withdraw a potentially costly planning appeal on the original rejected plans, which according to Mr Assenheim led to some residents to suspect “jiggery-pokery”. However, an additional commitment to contribute to improvements to the Campfield Road junction with Ness Road was secured.

Additionally, the health centre which formed an integral part of the approved plans were not present in any form in the original rejected plans, and according to chief executive Douglas Carroll could be more substantial than initially envisaged.

He said: “We’re working on proposals for the health centre but it’s going to be increased with ancillary things to do with the health centre, though we’re not sure by how much at the moment.

“We know they (the NHS) had a meeting with the council two weeks ago to talk about where they want it and the way forward for our site so that’s very encouraging. They were looking at three other locations and now the only one they’re considering is ours.”