A NEW pizza restaurant will be built on Southend seafront after councillors gave it the nod.

Adventure Island owners, the Stockvale Group, applied to Southend Council to create a family pizzeria and entertainment arcade at the Pizzas of Eight restaurant on the edge of the park.

The council’s development control committee overwhelmingly approved the plans, Though some concerns were expressed about noise, litter and parking, councillors hailed it as a “high-quality” and “exciting development”.

The two-storey development, with a pizza and pasta restaurant upstairs and a family entertainment centre on the ground floor, will have room for about 142 diners and is expected to create about 30 new jobs.

Gwen Horrigan (Con, West Leigh) said: “Stockvale has come before us again with an exciting plan for this particular area.

“It’s high quality and will offer employment.

“Stockvale trains employees, many of them students, and gives them a work ethic. Nothing but good can come from this.

“For a developer to put in so many resources at this difficult time is to be admired.”

The restaurant would open from 9am until 2am seven days a week with a takeaway open from 10am until midnight between Monday and Saturday, and between 10am and 11pm on Sunday.

Nigel Folkard (Con, Milton) was concerned about litter and antisocial behaviour.

He said: “This is my ward and I do have complaints about people stopping at takeaways early in the morning. They throw away wrapping which causes litter.”

Ron Woodley (Ind, Thorpe) also expressed concern about late-night noise and traffic around the premises.

Planning officer Dean Hermitage said: “I don’t think the proposal will attract many people at that time of night.”

Head of planning Andrew Meddle added that Adventure Island would take care of any issues of litter around their buildings.

He said: “The takeaway is not to be used in isolation. This is an integral part of the park.”