SOUTHEND United is set to build 675 homes at Roots Hall when it moves to its planned new stadium.

The club is about to build a 21,000-seater stadium at Fossetts Farm in Eastern Avenue, Southend. The development, currently being considered by planning officers, will also have a mix of shops, restaurants and flats.

The Roots Hall site in Victoria Avenue is pivotal to the stadium plans, providing funding towards the stadium.

However, the club is concerned the major development has not been included in the council’s Southend Central Area Action Plan, which lays the foundation for future development in the town.

The plan will be scrutinised by a Government inspector next week in a public hearing.

Southend United has submitted an objection to the plan and has appealed to have Roots Hall added to the scheme.

In the submission, Mary Power, director of Power Haus consultancy, said the site had once been part of the plan but had since been dropped. She said: “Our principle objection to the Southend Central Area Action Plan is the removal of and the lack of an allocation of the Roots Hall Football Stadium site. No explanation in the document has been given as to the subsequent exclusion of the Roots Hall site from the “Opportunity Sites” .

“Southend United has expressed intent for over ten years through the planning process, for the club to relocate to a new stadium at Fossetts Farm. Planning permission was previously granted in 2008 for the stadium relocation.

“The club and its development partners have been involved in extensive and ongoing pre-application discussions with the council for over a year on the development proposals for both the Roots Hall and Fossetts Farm sites. These discussions are at an advanced stage and the club has expressed an intention to submit the two applications concurrently”

The club said it hoped to complete the development within five years.

Speaking on behalf of club chairman Ron Martin yesterday, Ms Power said: “The club’s application for Fossetts is in, finally. It will provide the trigger by which the council will begin talks with the applicants and Roots Hall residents about the 600 plus units.

“We know it’s going to come forward in the next five years so that should be reflected in the Southend Central Area Action Plan.”

John Lamb, leader of Southend Council, said: “Roots Hall is not in the plan but that is going to be reviewed by the planning inspector. Ron Martin should get on and build the stadium. He had planning permission before and he hasn’t delivered.

“Now he has to go through another planning application.

“We really do need those homes but they must have adequate parking provision.”

Residents living in the busy area had mixed views about the influx of yet more homes.

Lorna Weston, 47, of St Mark’s Court in Victoria Avenue, said: “That’s an awful lot of homes. I can’t really see how they are going to fit 675 homes there. Unless they’ve planned for more tower blocks or tiny flats, there just doesn’t seem to be enough room for that many.

“In terms of the infrastructure, I can imagine 675 more cars would only add to the already-terrible traffic situation round here and that’s if there’s only one car per household, but I don’t think anything can be done to fix that. It is inevitably only going to get worse.”

Others welcomed more homes.

A 38-year-old man of Roots Hall Avenue, who asked not to be named, said: “We need more houses and there is very little space left to build them in Southend so that site seems as good as any to me.

“I would say as long as some of it is affordable housing but that term seems to have lost any meaning now. I can’t really see what else the space would be used for so housing makes sense really. The parking issue has never really bothered me. Everywhere is the same now.

“It’s just a fact of life. If you’re asking me whether it should be a car park or space for housing then obviously people need homes.”