Plans for two vital care homes have been submitted to Southend Council, including the long-awaited £15million Havens Hospice.

If given the green light, the two developments could see an extra 76 care home spaces created across the borough.

The first application is for the highly-anticipated replacement hospice for the Havens charity, a 16-bed hospice, with day care and treatment facilities, in Priory Crescent, Southend.

The site is now clear, but in the past it was used for industrial style warehouses.

The £15million proposals will also provide care for 30 visiting patients at a day centre which will deliver therapies, physio sessions and craft groups separate from its main lounge.

Last week, the charity launched its campaign for the final fundraising push in a bid to raise the last £2.5 million needed.

A second application has also been submitted by Southend Council to demolish existing buildings and create a 60-bed care home and day centre at Priory House, Prittlewell Chase, Westcliff.

The home would provide care for dementia patients, while the day centre would provide help for 34 people with both learning and physical disabilities.

It would replace a care home and a pupil referral unit already on the site.

The council is planning to demolish the school and the care home. Students will be transferred to a new site, while the care home patients will transfer straight from the old building to the new centre when it opens.

A number of features that are likely to be used in the garden area include a sound system, specialist equipment to aid the patients, plus a variety of raised planting beds and more.

Councillors said they are pleased to see plans of this kind being submitted and that new care facilities are in need.

John Lamb, Conservative leader of Southend Council, welcomed the planning applications and hoped both would come to fruition.

He said: “It is good if they go-ahead and be successful.

“We do need these facilities to be built in and around Southend.

“If these plans go ahead it will give a wonderful choice of care facilities which is just what we need for our population in Southend. We are pleased to see interest in building these sort of facilities. We are often hearing about care homes being closed down so it is good to hear that new ones could be built.”