Southend restaurant site branded a “complete eyesore”, after years of neglect.

The former Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant on Southend seafront was demolished in 2018. Now six years on, local residents are complaining that the site has been left in a mess.

They are frustrated at the lack of progress due to its prime seafront location, which is visible to visitors as they arrive at the seafront.

Seafront business owners say they are also frustrated at the lack of progress, after years of inactivity on the construction site.

Owners of the former Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant demolished the building in 2018 after getting approval from Southend council to build a two-storey replacement venue.

Groundwork for the new restaurant began in January 2019 but activity at the site stopped soon after and construction work has barely resumed since.

Watch the video of what the new restaurant should look like:

In September 2019 the owners applied to alter the planning permission to a smaller sized development, after an investor reportedly pulled out of financing the project.

In 2020, one of the owners of the restaurant told Your Southend: “We are still working to get the finance in place to get the build back on track. This will cause an additional delay unfortunately. The restaurant will open again, we need it too as it’s our livelihood.”

A further statement confirmed the funding issues: “Regrettably, due to funding constraints it has now become necessary to construct the approved building in two phases. Phase one consisting of a single storey building and phase two being the completion.

“We fully intend to build the 2015 approved scheme, but we need to construct the ground floor only at this stage. This will enable a trading period to be established, after which the funding for the approved scheme will be released and the building can be completed.”