SOUTHEND Labour Party has called on the council to guarantee no car parking places will be lost as development plans for central Southend go ahead.

Julian Ware-Lane, Labour councillor for Milton ward, believes town centre parking should be increased, rather than retaining the same number of places.

At present there are about 5,700 parking places in the town centre area, but Mr Ware-Lane said some places will be lost due to proposed developments like the Seaway car park, which will make way for a retail and leisure complex. The Queensway redevelopment will remove the Essex Street car park as well as that in Short Street and the Marine Plaza development will also result in the loss of parking spaces.

Mr Ware-Lane said: “The availability of parking is a huge issue for residents, and with the development plans to include new businesses the the pressure on parking will increase.

“Residents, visitors and businesses all need places to park, and with some significant development plans about to be implemented, we want assurances that these large-scale developments will not adversely impact on town centre parking.”

Mr Ware- Lane said the new developments would put greater stress on available parking as well as the local road infrastructure.

Calling for a review of parking, he said: “There will be significant challenges ahead, particularly through Victoria Gateway, and consideration should be given to re-open The Deeping.

“We are still awaiting sight of a parking strategy promised as part of the action plan. I am worried that we will see a reduction in car parking as both Seaway and Essex Street car parks are built on.”

Tony Cox, councillor responsible for transport confirmed a parking strategy would be published mid to late summer.

He said: “Our police is not to lose any car parking spaces in the town centre or the seafront. Our policy is to increase spaces. It is a bit rich for Labour to be saying this when they were part of the coalition administration they were quite happy for a deal to got through hat would have seen Seaway have about 450 spaces instead of 661.

“We don’t want to see any spaces lost and all we have done is increase them.”