Updated: Tesco for Southend (From Echo)

Updated: Tesco for Southend

3:11am Thursday 10th July 2008

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THE centre of Southend could be transformed by a multi-million pound plan unveiled by supermarket giant Tesco.

The company is proposing to build a huge new Tesco Extra store which would create more than 600 new jobs. It would be a similar type of store to the one in Prince Avenue, Westcliff.

There will also be private and affordable apartments, new facilities for the Focus Youth Centre and four smaller spaces for shops, restaurants or cafes.

A new Royal Mail sorting office is also included as the existing building on the site would be demolished if the plans go ahead. An overhead walkway will lead from the new superstore to the Victoria shopping centre to link the development with town centre shops.

Tesco's corporate affairs manager Nick Gellatly, who is leading the scheme, said: "This is a very exciting project to be part of.

"The proposals are for a landmark mixed-use development which will bring a multimillion-pound investment and hundreds of jobs to the heart of Southend.

"We'd encourage everyone to come along and see the plans. We want to know what people think about them and whether there are views on how we can make them even better for Southend."

The whole project is being masterminded by Spenhill, the regeneration subsidiary of Tesco, which is launching a public consultation on its latest plans today.

A public exhibition is being held in the Victoria shopping centre up to 8pm today (Thursday), between 10am and 6pm tomorrow (Friday)and on Saturday from 10am to 2pm.

Tesco wants to hear from people about ways the plans can be improved before an application is submitted to the council.

Mr Gellatly said it was not possible at the moment to put an exact figure on the cost of the development as it could change following the public consultation.

But he added the cost would certainly be millions of pounds.

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