A PLAN for the creation of a new business and enterprise park that has sat in Thurrock Council's pending tray for almost four years since its submission in September 2018 will finally be debated by councillors this week.

Members of the authority's planning committee will meet on Thursday (9 June) and finally see a presentation about the much-heralded Thames Enterprise Park - which was linked to last March's decision to grant the area Freeport status. The planned new park is a partner organisation in the freeport.

Councillors will be told the 412-acre enterprise park regeneration project on the site of the former Coryton refinery will provide more than 3.7 million sq. ft of development space for manufacturing, energy and logistics operations on the former Coryton oil refinery in Thurrock which closed in 2012.

If approved, the site will be cleared to make way for a total of 18 development plots for a raft of businesses and enterprises across the site. Only the refinery's existing chimney stack would remain and modified as a feature for the site.

It is expected to create up to 5,500 new jobs and add £340m every year to the economy.

In the application, Thames Enterprise Park said it aimed "To create a sustainable next generation manufacturing, logistics and energy hub for London and the South East that optimises Thames Enterprise Park's unique location and inter-modality to bring a historically important site back into economic life providing jobs, investment and economic vibrancy to the region and the UK".

However, objectors have raised concerns, including additional traffic and traffic impact, high traffic volumes including HGV movements and no capacity on the network for rail traffic use.

Castle Point Council raised no objections but said it was "a source of considerable regret that the development appears to rely exclusively on access being taken solely to and from the west of the site and completely disregards the significant opportunities which would be presented to the development if it were to be connected via a short road bridge to Northwick Road on Canvey Island to the east."

The council added: "The benefits from such a connection include quick and convenient access to the strategic road network to the east and north via the A130, a significant and growing business community located nearby at west Canvey which would be able to interact with the new business opportunities at this site, and a significant workforce located at Canvey Island to support the development."

If approved, developers say construction will begin rapidly with the first phase of the development up and running within two years.