A businessman has launched a project to buy a waterfront site in Brightlingsea to preserve it for public use.

Retired sailmaker Jim Lawrence hopes to raise the funds to buy the former James and Stone shipyard site to turn into parkland for the town.

Mr Lawrence has been rallying the community for support for the project and has been pleased with the positive response.

He said: "I think Brightlingsea is a pretty little town but we have got our eyesores within it and I think to open our waterside up would be for the benefit of all the people who live here and attract visitors."

Mr Lawrence added the project was in the early stages as yet but he envisaged a park in a similar vein to the Promenade Park at Maldon.

The site has stood redundant since the shipyard closed in 1987 and attempts to find a developer have been unsuccessful. In 1992 it was on the market for £175,000.

Mr Lawrence was confident the riverside community would pull together to stop the site being sold to housing developers.

"If they don't do something, they will lose it for ever and I think that would be a tragedy."

The Brightlingsea Society has called a meeting to discuss the future of the site, which lies in a conservation area.

Tendring Council recently reissued the original planning brief from 1988 which shows housing dominating the development with limited public access to the waterfront and ten per cent preserved as public space.

The society is calling for the inclusion of a Maritime Heritage Zone in the brief which acts as a planning blueprint for any potential developers.

Chairman Terry Talbot said: "What we would like for visitors and the people of Brightlingsea is to have a seaside promenade right around the periphery of that site."

Mr Talbot said he would like to see the waterfront developed to display the maritime heritage of the town.

"If the planners accept this principle it would protect the interests of conservation and public access no matter who eventually buys the sitem," he added.

The council's policy and conservation manager Phil Hornby will be attending the meeting on May 11 at 7.30pm at St Sabina's Church, Richard Avenue, Brightlingsea.

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