Residents of Southend-on-Sea shared their vision for the City’s future as part of engagement to help the council form a new strategy for the city centre.

On Thursday 12 May, new community hub The Ironworks at number 90 on Southend High Street opened its doors to residents who wished to share their opinions on the subject, with an online version of the survey also available on the Your Say Southend platform.

This engagement has started the process to create a new strategy to regenerate Southend City Centre. The strategy will set a clear vision and series of actions to guide the future development and direction of Southend City Centre for years to come. It will also help to form a list of projects to attract investment into the City to improve quality of life, bring jobs, and improve the environment. 

The six-hour event hosted over 85 participants from various sectors including education, local business, housing, arts and culture, transport, health and many more people dropped in throughout the day to provide their thoughts and suggestions. The sessions were led by architecture and urbanism experts 'We Made That’, who hosted a ‘question and answer’ style drop-in. Many passers-by also received leaflets with the survey website address to take part at home online in their own time.

A spokesperson from We Made That said: “There was lots of positive and helpful feedback from the sessions which we will take forward and help us shape the city centre strategy and investment plan. We hope that people found the sessions helpful and informative.”

Cllr Ian Gilbert, cabinet member for economic recovery and regeneration, added: “It was fantastic to see so many people drop by to take part in the consultation last week, and for those who were unable to make the in-person session, the consultation is still available online. I encourage as many people as possible to take part in the online survey so that we can develop a strategy that reflects the views of Southend’s residents.”
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A physical exhibition of the event is currently available to view at the Forum Library, and the online version of the consultation is available on the Your Say Southend website, which will run until Friday 27 May 2022.

Five of Southend-on-Sea’s beaches will be proudly flying prestigious Blue Flags once again following the announcement made by Keep Britain Tidy.

The Blue Flag awards, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, is an international award for well-managed beaches with excellent water quality.

East Beach, Shoebury Common Beach, Thorpe Bay Beach, Westcliff Beach and Three Shells Beach have all retained their Blue Flag this summer, highlighting the quality of the beaches across the City.

In addition, all Southend beaches have once again been presented with a Seaside Award by Keep Britain Tidy. The Seaside Award recognises beaches that are well-managed and maintained. This includes Bell Wharf Beach, where bathing had previously been discouraged.

The news comes after the recent launch of the new, eco-friendly electric pier trains, with the council confident the summer will be a record-breaking one for the pier and for local businesses, as the country continues to recover from the pandemic.

Cllr Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment, culture, tourism and planning, said “Receiving these awards for our beaches means that our residents and visitors can be sure that they are clean and safe and meet the highest environmental standards.

“Southend-on-Sea welcomes over 7 million visitors per year, and with Blue Flag and Seaside Awards flying above our beaches, residents and visitors will know that they are the best in the country. The flags attract visitors, and with us now being a City, this combination will prove a huge boost for local businesses through the popular summer months.
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“We want everyone to enjoy our beaches and help keep them award winning. We are all aware of the damage rubbish causes to marine life and the quality of the water, so we can all personally make a difference by disposing of rubbish responsibly when visiting the seaside or taking it home if bins are full.”

Improvement works to East Beach, Shoeburyness, which will provide increased parking and easier access for residents and visitors, are progressing well following the start of the work in April.

The two-phase project will see the existing layout of East Beach improved, with the existing car park - which is currently unmarked, made up of loose gravel and heavily worn - resurfaced and have 224 spaces marked out, including 11 disabled spaces. The car park is also being wired to accommodate electric vehicle charging points as demand grows in the coming years.
 
Further improvements are also being made to the area, with a dedicated footpath and cycle access from Shoeburyness High Street to enable better access to the area, alongside additional solar powered lighting columns and increased CCTV coverage. Works started on phase one of the project last month, with the footpath and cycleway being constructed, and the wiring for the electric vehicle chargers installed. This phase is on schedule and will be completed in approximately two weeks.  

The construction of the car park will be carried out as part of phase two. The project is being undertaken by Marlborough Highways and council engineers, and the project is due to be completed by the end of August 2022. 

Cllr Steven Wakefield, cabinet member for transport, asset management and inward investment, said: “East Beach has needed these improvement works for some time now, so it is great to see it underway. The improved layout will benefit visitors to East Beach but also residents and those from the surrounding area.

“It’s important that we improve our visitor offering to the east of the City. East Beach is one of our many sought out attraction spots for residents and visitors alike, and so it is great that these works are due to be completed in August, making our open spaces and facilities more accessible, which will include the proposed new cafés, refurbished toilets and beach. 

“It’s great news that the proposed café developments for East Beach also now have planning permission and we expect those to be coming forward over the course of 2022. Any expressions of interest for these should be directed to local agent Ayers and Cruiks who are engaged by the Council to market these.

“The car park will also have the facilities for commuters to purchase a season ticket – available on our website for just £45 per month - so that they can use the car park hassle-free and get on the train for their commute, and perhaps even grab a coffee from one of the cafés beforehand.
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“As we continue to work towards creating a carbon-neutral City by 2030, it is important we intensify the roll-out of electric car charging points to keep up with expected future demand. As such, wiring is being installed for all spaces, so they would have the capacity to become E-charging points in the future.” 

London Southend Airport was delighted to welcome the return of holidaymakers as it reopened its terminal this week.
 
From the start of May, easyJet returned to flying to London Southend Airport from Malaga six times a week, Palma four times a week and Faro twice a week using an A320 aircraft.
 
The return of easyJet flights is likely to prove popular with locals. In a recent survey that included responses from over 7,000 people living in the East of England, 90% of people gave the airport 8-10 in terms of favourability. Respondents are expected to be delighted with easyJet’s plans, having named Spanish destinations Palma and Malaga top of the list wish of destinations.
 
Glyn Jones, CEO, said: “London Southend Airport is delighted to welcome back passengers for the first flights from the newly minted City of Southend. People living locally, in London and across the east of England can now get back to quickly and easily travelling through our award winning airport, breezing through one of the UK’s quickest security experiences then relaxing before jetting off on easyJet flights to hugely popular summer destinations, Malaga, Palma and Faro.
We’d like to thank our truly outstanding team for all their efforts in making sure we’re ready to welcome back passengers and we want to recognise the huge support we have received from our amazing local community throughout an incredibly challenging time brought about by the pandemic. We look forward to seeing you at London Southend Airport soon.”
 
 Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager said: "We are delighted to be flying once again from London Southend Airport this summer, providing customers with convenient direct connections to explore or relax in some of Europe’s most popular beach destinations. We are proud to be the largest airline in the UK and to serve our customers from London Southend once again with more choice and great value fares.”