SOUTHEND Council has proposed spending an extra £9.5million to buy private homes and get people off the housing waiting list and into properties.

The money is on top of £5million being spent this year on 20 homes and a £14.5million housebuilding programme.

The pledge, which has to be approved by the full council, is part of a giant capital spending plan involving new infrastructure across the borough.

About £2.7m of new capital funding will be spent on local roads and pavements including:

• £1m for road and pavement resurfacing and repairing potholes (on top of £2m already budgeted)

• £650,000 for better road junction protection

• £600,000 improving road surfaces at a number of key zebra crossing sites

• £450,000 to improve the condition of pavements where trees at around Meanwhile, car parking charges will be frozen pending the council’s car parking strategy.

The one-hour town centre parking band that was reintroduced in autumn 2019 will also be maintained.

It is also proposed to spend an extra £1m over the next five years on further tree planting and their maintenance. This funding will also see the planting of 2,500 new shrubs across the Borough in 2020/21.

This money is in addition to the one-off funding agreed at cabinet in September 2019 to plant 1,000 new street trees across the borough over the next two planting seasons, in addition to those we plant as replacements.

A further £2.2m allocated in the council’s capital budget for a number of energy projects including more electric car charging points and specific ones for taxis, solar panels and air quality improvements.

Some £120,000 per year will also be spent on delivering the council’s air quality action plan.