COUNCILLORS and business owners are calling for a vacant unit to be filled after squatters commandeered the property.

The empty unit at Pier Hill, next to the pier lift was filled with squatters as recently as yesterday.

The unit has had a chequered past with many businesses set to move in over the 12 years it has stood empty but none have materialised.

The Echo was on the scene on Thursday but there was no one in sight. Signs on the door showed that the council had published an eviction order but it seems the squatters also had their own message.

The poster read: “We live in this property, it is our home and we intend to stay here.”

Milton councillor Julian Ware-Lane asked the question why the unit still stood empty. He said: “I know that unit has been empty for a long time so why haven’t we, the council let it. It is in a high profile location and there are thousands of visitors coming to Southend regularly that the business would only need one percent to do well.”

Talking about the squatters, he said: “Nothing is ever black or white. On the one hand you have sympathy for homeless people that feel forced to squat.

“There is a severe lack of affordable housing and homeless shelters.

“On the other hand, I never condone illegal activity and these are council units and as a councillor I can’t possibly ignore it.

Southend Council Leader, John Lamb said: “Some individuals broke into an empty unit at Pier Hill and left of their own accord when we issued an eviction order. The premises have now been secured.”

The unit was built in 2004 as part of the £6million Pier Hill redevelopment, funded by the European Union.

Business owners were angered at the empty unit, blaming the length of time it stood empty on the new guests.

A seafront trader who has been there for more than 20 years blamed the vacant unit on high rents. He said: “If those units belonged to a private landlord, they wouldn’t have been empty for more than 10 years.

“The rent price should be brought down, that way at least some money would be coming in and it would be occupied so something like this wouldn’t be able to happen.

“I have a bed and a home to go to every night and although it is distressing for the landlords, those people don’t have anywhere to go.”

Another trader had seen the squatters. He said: “I have seen a few people coming in and out. It is obviously not good for business but I think that because it is a commercial property it is a quicker process to evict them.

“I do think it is strange that they would choose that unit to occupy, it’s all boarded up and must be very dark in there.”