NEW plans to try to improve an area blighted by a steel fence have been blasted by a quayside campaigner.

Nancy Bell, of the Free the Quay group, has instead urged the applicants of the plan to work with others for a solution to the two-metre high fence at Mistley, to benefit everyone.

But others have welcomed the planning application and say that particular stretch of quay has been long overdue for a tidy-up.

Plans are in the pipeline to have kerbs, concrete infills and seven bollards removed at the quay.

The area was thrown into the spotlight in September after its owners, Trent Wharfage, put up the fence along the quayside for health and safety reasons.

The planning application, submitted by Dan Percy to Tendring Council, applies to an area to the right of the quay, as you face the river.

Gladedale Homes has some properties there and the fence also extends in front of these.

The application proposes that disused railway tracks, which currently run from one end of the quay to the other and hug the residential and part-commercial buildings, would be covered up by asphalt.

The tracks were originally used to carry barley to the maltings factory on the quay.

Mrs Bell said the applicant and Trent Wharfage should consider working together to make the whole area look better.

“The whole quayside looks a mess at the moment, getting rid of a couple of bollards is not going to improve the aesthetics overall,” she said.

But Angela Kilmartin, who lives at the Barley Stores on the quay, welcomed the news.

She said: “I am very proactive in trying to get the concentration camp fence removed and for the restoration of the surface of the quay in front of the old Victorian buildings, which will improve the surroundings of the quayside.”

She said “non-stop pressure” had been put on Gladedale Homes by several residents since they moved into there in 2002.

Gladedale homes was unavailable for comment.

Tendring Council has the final say on the plans.