A seaside neighbourhood with a reputation for being one of England’s most deprived areas is to undergo a £120million transformation to stop it from being swallowed by the sea.
Tendring District Council has launched a consultation for locals in Jaywick Sands, Essex, over proposals to bulldoze derelict houses and build new flood defences over the next 20 years. The area has often been named as one of the “worst” seaside towns in Britain.
The local authority says the estimated cost of the scheme will need external funding, with £84m set aside to defend the village, which lies to the west of Clacton-on-Sea, about 90 minutes by train from central London.
Improvements to bus stops, parks, gardens and footpaths form part of the proposals for a place often identified as a poverty hotspot.
A local resident, who only wanted to be referred to by his first name, Mark, told the BBC: “It is going to be a vast improvement and it needs it.
“It needs dragging into the 21st century – big time. It has so much potential. It has one of the best beaches in Essex.”
John, who also lives in Jaywick, told the broadcaster: “It is in desperate need of redevelopment. It’s been lacking for years and it got to the point where people wouldn’t come down here because it was rough.
“It has started to improve, but the development is desperately needed.”
Jaywick, which is also known as Jaywick Sands, made the headlines in 2018 when a then-candidate for the US Congress used an image of the village to show what would happen if voters failed to back him.
Nick Stella, a supporter of then-US President Donald Trump, used a picture of a Jaywick street with delapidated homes to attack his Democrat opponent.
A United Nations expert visited the neighbourhood that same year as part of a fact-finding mission for a report into the causes of poverty in Britain.
Professor Philip Alston was on a two-week tour of the UK and stopped in Jaywick, which came top of the Government’s English deprivation index in 2010 and 2015.
