CINEWORLD has pulled out of the £50million Southend town centre development mooted as the town’s answer to Bas Vegas.

Developer Turnstone Estates provisionally agreed to buy the Seaway car park, off Lucy Road, and build a ten-screen multiplex cinema restaurant complex, a multi-storey car park and 99 flats.

A deal with Cineworld was due to be signed in January, but a dispute between the chain and the Cambridge-based developer has led the cinema company to change its mind.

The news raises a question mark over the whole development, though Turnstone says it is still 100 per cent committed to the project.

Director Tim Deacon said: “We have started to talk to alternative cinema operators.

“The response has been good and we are confident about securing a tenant shortly after the summer.

“It is likely this will be the same quality, size and number of screens as previously planned.

“Once we have agreed terms, we will consult local residents and submit a detailed planning application. This is expected to be before the end of this year.”

It is understood the dispute was because Cineworldwanted a 14-m-high cinema building – 5m taller than Turnstone had proposed.

Mr Deacon said: “We reached the conclusion we could accommodate this change, from a planning, design and landscape impact point of view.”

Leases have already been signed on three of the 11 restaurant units, with Chiquito, Coast 2 Coast, and Frankie and Benny’s due to move in.

The companies had voiced “considerable concern”, Mr Deason said, at the taller cinema, as it would have been above their restaurants.

The multi-storey car parh would serve the new complex, but overall, would provide 125 fewer spaces than the current car park.

Council leader Ron Woodley, said: “Turnstone appears to have had a problem with the cinema element, but it isworking to get over that problem and is still committed.

“We welcome it still being committed to Southend and we wish it all the best.

“We have an agreement with the company and it is up to it to fulfil it.”

Turnstone does not yet own the site and has said it will only buy it once it has planning permission and more restaurants have committed to the project.

Echo:

Councillor concerns

A COUNCILLOR thinks the problems the council’s £50million investment in Seaway could make it more trouble than it’s worth.

Labour Mildon ward councillor Julian Ware-Lane, fears the development will simply make the area’s big traffic problems even worse – ruining neighbour’s views in the process.

He also thinks the proposal for 99 apartments and a multistorey car park will make Southend town centre seem even more overcrowded, when what the deprived Milton and Kursaal wards really needed was more space.

He said: “The most deprived areas in Southend are mostly in the town centre. Deprivation is linked to a lack of open space and overcrowding.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t develop the site, but the life expectancy of people in Thorpe Bay is a decade higher than that of people in the area around Seaway.

“I have long wondered about the viability of the Cineworld cinema, so close proximity to the Odeon in the High Street.