A NEW town centre car park, overflow car park, terraced housing and public open space has been set out in a masterplan for Dovercourt.

The Tendring Council Masterplan Revisited has been unveiled ahead of a cabinet meeting to discuss the ideas on Friday.

Commissioned by the council it was designed to replace a 2011 plan called Dovercourt Rediscovered with a focus on redesigning the former Starlings site in Main Road and the Milton Road multi-storey car park.

A public consultation for the previous plan has been re-used.

The report said: “Although the consultation was done a number of years ago, the results are still considered relevant because of the slow pace of change in Dovercourt.

“Many of the issues facing residents in 2010 are still pertinent today.”

The latest masterplan has listed ten high priority projects for the town including two public space areas outside the library in Kingsway, Dovercourt Station and the former Starlings site.

Overall there are 20 projects with others including an overspill car park off the A120 near Dovercourt Station, reviving the street market, shopfront improvements in High Street and Kingsway, and pocket spaces on the High Street.

The first project is to create a 59-space car park on the former Starlings site to replace the Milton Road public car park of 68 spaces.

The report said: “Between the car park and the High Street a new linear public space is provided.

“This provides benches, tree planting, landscaping and children’s timber play equipment.

“A public toilet facility is located at the western end of the space.”

Milton Road car park would be replaced with a terrace of nine three-bedroom houses, with four public on street car parking spaces and another 15 on Bagshaw Road to replace those in the High Street which would be lost in the regeneration of the street scene.

The report added: “High Street improvements require the removal of car parking. This allows the widening of footways for less restricted pedestrian movement.

“This could accommodate planters, formal or informal seating, a feature lighting object and bicycle parking.”

Plans for the town centre also include possibly pedestrianising Kingsway, aimed at “giving a new heart to Dovercourt”.

It would include formal and informal seating and feature lighting and could be used for street markets and events.

The masterplan is set to go before Tendring Council’s cabinet for approval.

It comes after the idea for improvements at the Starlings site including a possible new town square were mooted in January 2017 to use Tendring Council’s New Homes Bonus from the Government to pay for “public realm works” in the area.

A report was commissioned but draft proposals were delayed.

A report set to be discussed by cabinet members calls for the councillors to adopt the masterplan vision and agree the Starlings, Milton Road, Kingsway and Station Plaza open space projects are developed with detailed business cases.