SOUTHEND’S fireworks display could have been moved to Leigh or Thorpe Bay to avoid it being cancelled on Saturday, a public health boss has revealed.

The firework display on the seafront was cancelled again on Saturday - for the third time in four weeks - because of the ongoing Anglian Water sewage leak.

Raw sewage is being pumped into the Thames Estuary, and the beaches remain closed for swimming.

Krishna Ramkhelawon, Southend’s director of public health, revealed he suggested on Friday to move Saturday’s firework event to either Leigh or Thorpe Bay.

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He said: “I had no choice to cancel them, because of the sewage. To run a firework display where a lot of people will be, all they would have needed to do was touch their face and we would have had more people in hospital.”

He added: “It is raw sewage, you can catch anything.

“Either we move it to Leigh or Thorpe Bay, which would have been a challenge, or we cancel it. I didn’t want to cancel it.

“My first advice was to move it to Thorpe Bay or Leigh.

“I didn’t get any reassurances that people still wouldn’t be going in the water so we had to cancel it.”

The other firework events have been cancelled due to poor weather and the death of Southend West MP Sir David Amess.

Fireworks organisers, Southend Business Improvement District, is set to add on extra firework events to the end of the schedule to replace the cancelled displays.

This comes as Southend Council wrote a furious letter to Anglian water, demanding answers as to how the sewage situation grew worse and worse last week.

Paul Thompson, owner of Pebbles One cafe, slammed the cancellation of the firework display, adding: “It was devastating for business.

“Why did the cancel it on a Friday afternoon? They should have waited until Saturday to assess the situation.

“The one display we had did Southend the World of good.

“There was hundreds of metres of barriers in place from Anglian Water to make sure people kept off the beaches.

“It could have gone ahead.”