A BEACHFRONT restaurant could finally be built following a lease agreement... seven years after plans were approved.

Southend Council is set to rubber stamp an agreement for a two-storey café and restaurant on East Beach, in Shoebury.

The restaurant will be on the site of a former café which burnt down in 2006. The owner of lease, who pays ground rent to the council, is said to have been in negotiations to agree a new lease for the restaurant.

Planning permission was granted in 2011 but the work never started and a mobile café has continued to operate there.

Echo:

Futuristic design - Ska Architects’ vision for East Beach cafe

Councillors hope agreement on the terms of the lease will now kickstart the project.

Conservative Roger Hadley said: “The scheme had planning permission but nothing has happened.

“It’s been 12 years since we have had a café on that site. The terms have had to be agreed and there has been a lot of going backwards and forwards but now the council has said ‘if this is to go forward these are the terms’.

“At the moment there is just a mobile café there but we want more than that.

“We want a decent facility on that site. It’s been difficult for us to move forward with this and various applications have come in. It’s been going on such a long time but hopefully things will move now.”

The new two-storey building be at the entrance to East Beach Park and will have an outside terrace and seating area with sea views.

The site will have a ground-floor cafe and a first-floor restaurant for evening dining. Both Ska Architects and APS design have previously drawn up plans for the scheme.

There will be room for up to 150 diners, both inside and outside, with the majority expected to park in the nearby 175-space public car park.

James Courtenay, deputy leader of the council, says: “All the terms are now settled for an agreement for lease, and lease of land at East Beach for a restaurant development.

“The council is now ready to complete from its perspective, and so we are liaising with the tenant regarding a contract completion date.”