A SHOP that was destroyed in a huge fire at a Canvey business estate 18 months ago could be rebuilt.

Three single-storey shops, a timber yard, several industrial units, and the Corner Club, off High Street, Canvey, were destroyed by the blaze, in November 2010.

The Echo reported yesterday Lee Petch, 46, and Frank Bennett, 58, had re-opened the 100-year-old Corner Club – a popular drinking venue which has been described as “the beating heart of Canvey”.

A planning application has now been submitted to Castle Point Council to rebuild one of the neighbouring shops, which was a general store at the time of the fire and sold tyres for many years before that.

The application is to build a single-storey shop, with 132sq m of floor space, plus staff room and toilets. It was submitted by private firm Illovy Properties, which owned the original shop since the Seventies.

A spokesman said: “We would welcome all enquiries from traders interested in opening a business there. We are open minded at the moment about what it could be used for.”

He added the new building would meet all the latest building regulations, making it less vulnerable to future fires.

The shop was a general store at the time of the blaze, selling a variety of items, including household cleaning products, plants and novelty gifts. The tenants who ran that business, retired following the blaze.

The store previously catered for motor vehicles and was called Motorway Tyres and Accessories.

Mr Petch said he was pleased to hear plans had been submitted to rebuild the shop.

He said: “If there are more businesses around the club, it can only help bring in more business.”

The fire started in a cannabis factory in one of the industrial units. It took a team of some 50 firefighters to put out the flames.

Ray Howard, who has been a Tory Canvey councillor since the Sixties, said: “It was a very successful business when tyres were sold from that shop.

“I hope it is rebuilt and the rest of the site gets regenerated, which would create more jobs.”