A NEW Paddocks may never be built on Canvey, according to the the leader of the independent party.

Dave Blackwell, has insisted the council must now provide accurate costs to compare the prices of refurbishing the hall and building a new community centre.

Claims have been made the figures of £4.1million for a refurbishment and £4.3million for a new build were unrealistic.

On Wednesday night, a scrutiny committee chaired by Mr Blackwell agreed the consultation into the controversial plan was flawed, and any future reports relating to The Paddocks were therefore flawed.

Mr Blackwell claimed the costs for refurbishing the hall were only estimations, stating he has had it confirmed from officers no official refurbishment study took place to come up with an accurate figure.

He said: “In my opinion, I would expect costs of building a new hall to be up at nearly £6million, we received the £4million estimation before we even knew what was wanted.

“No-one is going to cough up that cash.

“I have a sinking feeling that it may never happen now.

“This could have put a pin in the whole project.

“Councillor Bill Dick summed it up in the meeting when he said we still don’t know how we will fund the project.

“It says it all, we don’t really know how much it will cost, and we don’t know where the money will come from.

“So what do we know really?

“Not a lot.”

A cabinet meeting is set to be held in two weeks time, and following the scrutiny committee verbal feedback from the consultation is set to be given.

Previously, only feedback from the online consultation was provided to the cabinet.

And Mr Blackwell is set to request that the Tories provide a full business brief into the plan detailing all costs and proposals for the site.

He added: “Everyone I have spoken too, in terms of the public, thought it was an official consultation and the comments would be fed back to the council and make a difference, but that was not the case.

“I would agree with what Peter Grieg told the Echo, we need to go back to stage one of the consultation and we need to ask the public the question we never asked originally.

“Do they want a new Paddocks community centre, or do they want the site refurbished.”

The current building was due to be demolished and a new one built despite huge opposition from islanders.

Some 8,000 people have signed a petition against the proposals.

Norman Smith, leader of Castle Point Council, insisted he was happy to give the additional feedback, expecting it to mimic the originally feedback, but does not want to see a fresh consultation and plans to continue as before.