THE Seaway development will boost the town’s economy, but it has worried seafront traders who fear a loss of car parking in the town.

The development is expected to create 450 new jobs, but concerns have been raised the town could become gridlocked if parking is reduced.

However, developers Turnstone Estates are confident there will be no loss of parking capacity in the town centre when they build over the 661-space car park - and they believe there could even be more.

A planning inspector will this week hold a public hearing to examine the Southend Central Area Action plan, which maps out development for years to come.

The town’s parking provision forms part of that plan and Turnstone says it has worked closely with Southend Council to ensure capacity is maintained and improved.

Tim Deacon, director of Turnstone, wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how many spaces will be available in Seaway, which will have a new multi-storey car park.

Mr Deacon said: “I’m not going to quote parking numbers at the moment, but this site has got the capacity to deliver a lot of parking.

“We’re delivering a multi-storey car park. It has the physical capacity. What I end up choosing to deliver will depend on the outcome of the public hearing but also the overall strategy of the council.

Mr Deacon added: “The council has committed £5million in their capital programme to deliver extra parking and whether that gets delivered on this site there will be no net loss of parking. I suspect at the end of the process there will be a lot more parking.

Mr Deacon said his company was confident there would be no loss of parking.

He said: “Extensive traffic studies and car parking surveys in the town centre clearly show a great deal of capacity in the town, particularly south of the railway line. Even on the sunniest days there is still car park capacity in the town. This is about getting to the right parking space. They are all within close walking distance.

“Our model will show there is enough car parking to cope with the existing demands on the Seaway car park and what’s created by the cinema and restaurants apart from a very few and infrequent periods where people will have to go to other town centre car parks.”

Paul Thompson, chairman of Southend Seafront Traders, wasn’t convinced, however. He said: “We don’t know how many spaces they are proposing and that’s the key. They are going to build on a 661-space car park - the main car park for the seafront.

“They have got to announce how many parking spaces they are proposing to put on the site. Festival Leisure Park in Basildon has 2,000 parking spaces. Until we see how many they are proposing we can’t say much.”

Council will benefit SOUTHEND Council and the town’s taxpayers are set to turn a profit from the new development at Seaway.

Turnstone Estates has purchased a long lease from the council and will start to pay the authority regular sums, even during construction.

Turnstone’s managing director, Tim Deacon, said: “We’ve got an agreement to purchase the land on a long lease.

“That agreement has been in place for the last two-and-a-half years.

“The council will generate income from our development so when it’s completed, or even during the construction period, we guarantee a period of income and when it’s completed they take a share to ensure the income to the council is maintained.”

Mr Deacon said the development could encourage further investment to the town.

He said: “It’s not only that income, but the business rates it will generate and what we see elsewhere is that a lot of businesses in close proximity to new development suddenly invest themselves.

“This is about investment radiating out from our investment in the site so the whole area will be lifted, particularly in the High Street area.

“If you then have a big scheme out of town which is dragging that investment away it will drag a huge amount of investment away from the High Street and the seafront.”

The company has delivered similar multi-million pound schemes elsewhere.

It has delivered similar schemes in St Neots and another in Ely, Cambridgeshire - a Cineworld £15.7million scheme which opened last week Mr Deacon said: “We’ve done lots of office and retail and leisure development and our track record of delivery has been extremely good.

“Delivery is key.”