Government funding of almost £4.3million has been approved for two projects in Jaywick Sands.
The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) has today agreed the investment from the Getting Building Fund (GBF) for the schemes.
One project is to build a covered market on the former Sunspot site at the entrance to the Brooklands area, along with 13 affordable business units, a community garden and hard landscaped area which can accommodate an outdoor market in addition to the ten pitches inside.
This initiative received £1.972m from the GBF, and will be topped up by £105k from Tendring District Council (TDC) and £50k from Essex County Council (ECC), which together will cover the building works and finding a partner to run the workspaces – including providing business support services.
The second scheme is a cycling project to improve links between Jaywick Sands and Clacton, and launch a community bike scheme to loan bicycles to residents– helping them travel to work or college in a healthy, green and cheap way.
This project received £2.3m from the GBF, and will be supported with £100,000 from the Sport England Local Delivery Pilot.
Neil Stock OBE, TDC Leader, said the money was a huge vote of confidence in Jaywick Sands.
“We have long known the potential that Jaywick Sands holds, and this substantial amount of money shows that others are now recognising that too,” Cllr Stock said.
“Knowing how popular the current market is and what demand our consultants saw for business units, I am sure this will be a big success – not only for Jaywick Sands, but as part of our wider Back to Business agenda to help the whole district recover from Covid-19.”
Cllr Paul Honeywood, TDC Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility for Jaywick Sands, added: “The close joint working between ourselves and ECC, backed up with up-front investment in roads, housing and infrastructure, has shown other investors that we are serious about Jaywick Sands.”
The two projects will work closely together, with potential for a bike maintenance outfit to be based at the new business units to support the cycling scheme.
