Shoebury East Beach plan backed by Tory website poll

The council wants to build a 175-space car park, refurbish a toilet block and add showers, and create a coastal cycleway, and barbecue and picnic areas.

Local opinion has been divided on the £350,000 plans, a division emphasised by an unofficial poll, carried out on the Shoebury Conservatives’ website over the course of a month.

It shows 66 per cent of the 154 people who took part back the plans, 32 per cent against and 2 per cent undecided.

Laurie Gaymer, 62, a member of the Shoebury Village Residents’ Association and a supporter of the plans, said: “I am very pleased with the result.”

Mr Gaymer of Gunners Road, added: “Without a doubt, it is very sensible and safe. I think it would be very difficult to get something that is a true poll on the issue, but most people I have spoken to are in favour.”

Simon Mudd, 39, who runs the Essex Kitesurf Club a group which regularly uses the beach, added: “I have spoken to some of the residents and I do understand their concerns, but I still think it’s an opportunity to have an area of beach in Southend with a hard area without any cars or traffic.

“I think it would be a shame to miss this opportunity.”

Tony Cox, Conservative councillor for Shoebury, thanked the residents who voted in the poll.

He said: “Until now, there has been no free and fair way for residents to express their views on the proposed East Beach improvements.

“Since speaking to local residents about the scheme I’m not surprised at the scale of the result.

“Residents, quite rightly, have been asking the council for some action on East Beach and now, I believe, we have a scheme which can only enhance the area.”

However, Ann Chalk who has lived in High Street, Shoebury, for 25 years, remains staunchly opposed to the proposals and skeptical about the poll.

She said: “I think this is a fishing expedition, it’s political. If you ask people on the doorstep they tell you that they don’t want it at all.”