Today Southend Council seeks planning permission to build its much trumpeted structure on the slippage site along the seafront.

At a time when hardpressed taxpayers are being subjected to a programme of unprecedented austerity, our profligate council proposes to erect a mish mash of ill conceived ideas: 200- seat restaurants, conference halls and cinemas, do not make a museum.

Southend gained a cultural pearl with the discovery of the Saxon King’s treasures.

This is one of the most significant archaeological finds in recent history and could help change the perception of our town as one whose single asset is a sadly neglected pier.

In the council’s grandiose scheme, however, these priceless artefacts would be just a sideshow in the executive’s playground.

In spite of this, our head-in- the-cloud leaders are prepared to lavish not the originally proposed £35million but a whopping £50million.

Like a confederacy of dunces, our council bumbles along in the hope “something will turn up” to pay for its pipe dreams I attended a presentation in which Skipp outlined its proposals for an alternative museum at the site of the discovery.

We were shown plans in great detail outlining costs.

The facts were given skillfully and honestly.

All questions were answered fully. It showed how it would centre on education in a hands-on fashion which families could enjoy.

Furthermore, the expectation would be that this project would expect to make a profit. The cost of this model? About one seventh of the council’s.

Why will it not even look at these alternatives?

Noel Ryan
London Road
Leigh