ATTEMPTS to halt a major housing development pushed the cost of Basildon's town centre regeneration up by an extra £3million, council bosses have revealed. A new South Essex College is the centrepiece of Basildon Council's town centre masterplan, published in 2012, but the scheme has always been dependent on the college selling its current Nethermayne site to developers. The Basildon Green Action Group tried to launch a judicial review to halt the 725-home Dry Street estate, but the long-running legal battle was defeated last month, giving the green light for the £6million sale of the campus to Redrow Homes. It was originally hoped the sale would fund a scheme to relocate Basildon Market to St Martin's Square, making way for the new campus, but an increase in construction costs has upped the price to £9.15million. Critics attacked Basildon Council earlier this month when it was revealed the authority was receiving a £1.75million grant from Essex County Council to help cover part of the shortfall. Ben Williams, Lib Dem council candidate for Nethermayne at next month's elections, called the viability of the project into question, as both the council and college had previously claimed the move would be cost-neutral. The council insists the grant will ensure the project is completed quicker and at a lower cost. Tory council leader Phil Turner said: “When the concept was originally produced back in 2012 we envisaged the market relocation would be achieved with no taxpayer cost. "Since then two things have changed – firstly, we have seen four years of legal delays due to challenges, and during that time construction market costs have gone up significantly, by around 30 per cent. "That has to be factored into the cost." The council insists it could have paid for the project entirely out of its own earmarked regeneration funds, but doing so without the county council grant would have delayed the scheme and made it more expensive. Mr Turner added: "Had we not taken the funding, the market square improvements would have taken longer to deliver, meanwhile the funding would have gone to another borough which would have seen the benefit of it. "This way, we can fund the improvements straight away and also use the regeneration account funds to deliver other elements of the Basildon town centre masterplan." Basildon Council put the college relocation at the centre of its masterplan due to fears the town could lose the college completely. South Essex College had already made clear its intention to move out of its Nethermayne site, and it had been feared it could decide to expand its Southend campus and leave Basildon. As well as moving the market, the £9.15million project will include improvements to public space surrounding the town's bell tower and St Martin's Church/ It is hoped the market move will be finished by early-2017. giving the college more than a year to build its campus for its planned September 2018 opening.
South Essex College members have revealed attempts to block the Dry Street estate, Basildon Market 's housing development plan promising 725 new homes in the town centre, have increased regeneration costs by £3m to a total of £ £3m m. The regeneration of Basildon is set to include the building of a new Essex County Council , moving the market and improvements to public spaces. Essex County Council has provided a £ 9.15 m grant for this development.