LANDMARK proposals to build 121 new homes, including a controversial nine-storey tower block, on wasteland have been given the go-ahead.

Councillors approved the plans for two blocks of flats, which will form an L-shape on a fenced off site between Tesco and the High Road, Pitsea.

One of the blocks, which will mostly face Station Lane, will stand nine storeys tall and contain a single shop unit at its base.

The neighbouring block, which will face the Tudor Mansions shops and offices, will be five storeys high and contain four ground-level shops.

Before the plans were app-roved, Geoff Williams, Lib Dem councillor for Nether-mayne, raised concerns about allowing the blocks to be built.

He said the plans were outdated as high-rise monstrosities, built in the Sixties and Seventies, were being demolished all over Basildon.

He said: “We’re pulling down tower blocks in other parts of town, because it’s obvious people don’t like living in them.

“Personally, I don’t think the design is at all attractive.

“I would hate us to think in 15 years’ time, ‘I wish we hadn’t allowed that’.”

However, a majority of councillors on the development control committee felt the designs were in keeping with the surrounding area.

They argued the tower block will not look too tall.

Most councillors were also in favour of the design of the five-storey block, a modern take on the surrounding mock-Tudor buildings.

Mo Larkin, Tory councillor for Pitsea South East, said: “Housing is needed in Pitsea and I would sooner see a pleasant development like this one.”

She added the new flats will hopefully be a landmark development which will kickstart the Pitsea masterplan, the council’s grand vision for the redevelopment of the town centre.