PLANS to regenerate Hadleigh have received a boost after an application to demolish a pub were submitted.

The move marks the first stage of a much-delayed scheme which is finally moving from the drawing board.

Back in 2012, the entire country was basking in the glory of the London Olympic Games.

After hosting the successful London 2012 mountain biking event, Hadleigh was also surfing a wave of positivity and was in great shape to announce plans for a £60million regeneration.

Hadleigh has been left with a world-class mountain biking facility as a legacy of the Olympics, but the town centre has seen little change.

Castle Point Council leader Norman Smith says he is determined to get a town centre revamp off the ground – despite the delay.

The Tory leader of Castle Point Council said he feels frustration just like residents over the delay to regenerate Hadleigh town centre.

Although the Hadleigh masterplan features a number of ideas to turn the town into “a great place to live and work”, the exact details will now need to change.

“The redevelopment will include homes and shops. We think it will be about 60 homes and we are unsure how many shops it will be at this stage,” said Mr Smith.

“Pre-Olympics there was an indicative look of how it would look, but the developer for that backed away.

“We don’t know exactly how much each part will cost at this time, but it will be multi-millions.

“It has taken so long because of multiple ownership of the sites involved.”

The development has suffered a number of snags, including funding withdrawals, developers pulling out and most recently delays due to the county council library closure consultation.

It is thought the whole project could cost about £60million.

It would include improving existing local buildings, removing the A13 junction gyratory from the town centre, attracting more big name stores to the High Street and building new homes for residents which will boost the night time economy of the town.

Mr Smith added: “There was £2million funding withdrawn from the county council back in 2017.

“This meant the town’s regeneration was no longer viable.

“Now we are working with the county council’s Essex Homes department, so hopefully there should be less issues.

“This is something I am still pushing to do.

“I understand and share the frustration from residents about the delay. I have been working on this for years.”

Traders have become frustrated with the delay in demolishing the Crown pub, which has been closed since 2009, and build a community events space in its place.

Mr Smith said:” We have submitted plans to our committee for the demolition of the old Crown pub so that it is not such an eyesore. If we get a decision by the county council on the library in the next month, then we can start on a plan.”

Residents and traders say they want to see progress soon.

Tom Richardson, 40, who runs a salon in the town, said: “Our town regeneration is now well overdue. We, as traders, want to see more done to get people into the town. It is not good enough that they’ve not been telling us what the situation is.”

Carrie Gardener, 50, who runs a town centre florist, added: “As traders we are also worried about the future of our businesses. We want to make sure we have job security with any plans for the town.”