8:00am Thursday 18th March 2010
PLANS for a £100million revamp of Canvey town centre have been unveiled.
The ambitious proposals include creating a tree-lined public pathway, scrapping the one-way system, bringing in more public spaces, building a huge supermarket and pedestrianising an area to cater for a market.
Council chiefs say the plans would greatly improve the town centre and bring business to the island.
The tree-lined pathway would link the junction with Knightswick Road and Vaagen Road with Canvey Lake.
The masterplan also proposes three new public spaces, which would be attractively landscaped and contain seating, and possibly sculptures and other public art.
There will be a civic square, at the junction of Furtherwick Road and High Street, a town square, connecting the shops with the proposed new school off Foksville Road, and a green square around the war memorials outside the Paddocks Community Centre, off Long Road.
The Paddocks would be refurbished, with a cafe installed on the ground floor.
The scheme also proposes pedestrianising Furtherwick Road and the High Street at certain times of the week, to allow a regular market and other public events. The one-way system, which takes vehicles through Foksville Road, Knightswick Road, and Elder Tree Road, would be scrapped.
Steve Rogers, Castle Point’s head of regeneration, said: “There are plans for a combination of attractive shops, flats and other amenities at locations around the town centre, which are either available to be built on at the moment, or could become available in the not-too-distant future.
“They would have to meet a strict design criteria, following traditional Dutch, art deco or modernist design styles seen elsewhere on the island.
“The council will also set higher design standards, for future planning applications where developers want to rebuild any of the existing buildings.”
Potential locations for new blocks of flats and shops include the junction of Furtherwick Road and Long Road, in the Haystack pub’s car park, and the current Sainsbury’s supermarket store, in the Knightswick shopping centre, which could be demolished.
The council estimates the overall cost of the scheme would be more than £100million, which it hopes will be mostly covered by private investment. This could come from private firms expected to invest in the public improvements, in exchange for being allowed to build and sell the shops and flats.
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