LEIGH Old Town is a favourite spot on the estuary, attracting thousands of visitors on any sunny weekend, but did you know Southend Council planned to destroyed it in the 1960s?

Had it not been for campaigners, who literally waged war for more than a decade against a plan for a huge new road, it would not have existed today.

Going back half a century Southend Council put forward a plan for a road which would have torn through, and destroyed, the little picturesque corner of south Essex.

Had it gone ahead, the so-called "road to the west" would have begun on Canvey and Benfleet and run alongside the railway line all the way to Southend.

This would have wiped out every single building in the Old Town making way for the road to ease congestion on the A13.

Not surprisingly the plans caused uproar and an all-out campaign to prevent them going ahead was launched - a campaign strongly backed by this paper.

One of those behind the battle to prevent the jewel in Leigh's crown being destroyed forever, was Alan Crystall, who only stepped down as a Leigh Lib Dem councillor in February.

He now looks back and regards the campaign as the greatest achievement of his political career.

Mr Crystall, 81, said: "It was first proposed in the early 1960s, going from Southend seafront, Chalkwell Esplanade and straight through Old Leigh. Every single building there would have gone. The bridge going over to the Old Town was meant to be part of it. That's why it's so wide.

"They knew the east - west traffic problem would get worse, as it has, but we fought an epic battle against it.

"People felt very strongly about it and the Leigh Seafront Action Group, which had just started, fought hard against it. They had already started pulling buildings down. Opposite the Crooked Billet there was a beautiful place with a Dutch roof that went.

"Then the council bought all the houses there and they became derelict."

The suggested route for the road was from the A13 west of Tarpots, swinging west and south of Benfleet and following a line south of the railway to Southend seafront.

A new link road was also proposed across East Haven Creek to Canvey.

Another councillor also relentlessly fought the plans and eventually saw them kicked out.

Mike King was a Liberal councillor when the proposals first saw the light of day.

He said: "There were two debates on Southend Council and apart from me on each occasion, with one exception, all voted in favour of the road. We were always outvoted so it went on the Southend town plan.

"There was a lot of publicity. I remember walking on the mud with a TV film crew, showing them where the road was going to go. The Old Town became derelict as the council bought up properties and people gave up and went. This gave them a reason to say the place was a disgrace and should be razed to the ground."

Mr King added: "It became a cause célèbre in Leigh. Even people who didn't have much to do with the Old Town were very opposed to it."

After years of struggle the campaigners won the day in 1974.

Mr King, 84, from Leigh, said: "When Southend became part of Essex County Council I became a county councillor. At the very first meeting I proposed that the scheme should be stuck from the record and without any opposition the county council agreed to remove it from the plan. There would be no road to the west. There was a great celebration and yes a few beers were drunk."

Following the victory some buildings were put back on the market, including what is now the Lynne Tait Gallery and the little High Street began to slowly come back to life.

Today, what was once a bustling fishing village, is transformed with popular pubs, restaurants and galleries.

Sadly some businesses like Southend Engineering, which made fittings for boats, folded. All the marine-related businesses are also long gone from the Old Town but at least it survived, only thanks to tenacious band of campaigners who refused to give up t.he fight