THE public has been warned to steer clear of nearly four miles of Southend beaches after an oil slick hit the coast.

Southend Council warned people to steer clear of the seafront between the Sea Life Centre in Marine Parade, Southend, to Shoebury East Beach, while it clears up the mess. A 10-strong team has been drafted in.

A cargo ship, believed to be from Italy, leaked 200 litres of fuel oil into the estuary near Canvey, between 7am and 8am on Sunday morning.

It first washed ashore on Canvey seafront on Sunday morning, causing Concord beach to be closed, and appeared on Southend beaches early yesterday morning. The black liquid was described as globules as it clumped together and stuck in seaweed, once it reached land.

An Environment Agency spokeswoman said: “A vessel that was going up the Thames leaked some heavy fuel oil. The ship is now at Tilbury Dock.

“The Port of London Authority is investigating with the Marine Coastguard Authority. There is oil on the beach at Canvey and Southend. The local authorities are dealing with that, as they are the landowners. It is their responsibility to clear it up.

“We have had no reports of environmental damage and so we hope it continues that it is just restricted to the beaches.

“From what I understand, it wasn’t a massive amount of oil. It is just clumped up on the beach, which makes it easier to clean up.

“If people notice any particular problems they can let us know on our incident line 0800 807060.”

Castle Point Council said it was not able to say when all the oil would be cleaned up.

Andrew Smith, co-ordinator for emergency planning at the council, said: “We acted quickly on Sunday to assess the situation and liaise with other agencies to deal with the incident.”

“We will continue to work closely with the other agencies involved to resolve the situation and reinstate the beach to its former condition.”

Southend Council’s emergency planning officer, Keith Holden, said: “We are still assessing the full impact of the oil spill. We have sought advice from a pollution control firm which has sent two experts to Southend to assess the impact of the spill.”

A ten-strong team of workers would start clearing the oil from 8am today.

Mr Holden added: “It is likely small stretches of beach will have to be taped off while the clean-up operation is underway.

“In the meantime we are asking residents and visitors to avoid the affected area as a precautionary measure.”