A HUGE festival is set to return to Shoebury’s East Beach this summer to celebrate the Caribbean community in a move which will also honour a former organiser and EastEnders star who died.

Last August, bright colours, food, music and dance filled the seafront for the East Beach Festival and was a huge success with thousands attending.

Now, plans have been submitted for the festival to return, however dates are yet to be confirmed.

Last year the event was coorganised by Josephine Melville, who died in October, and calls have been made for the festival to be held in her honour.

The former EastEnders actress, who lived in Westcliff for many years, was a driving force behind last year’s inaugural festival, which celebrated Jamaican culture, food and music.

Echo: Volunteers at last year's festivalVolunteers at last year's festival (Image: Helen Shine)

The festival was widely welcomed but problems with inconsiderate parking and sound from the stage facing towards a nearby mobile home park prompted some complaints.

Calling for the festival to be held in tribute to Ms Melville, Peter Lovett, chairman of Shoebury Residents’ Association, said: “Last year we spent five months with Josephine on the East Beach Festival. I’ve asked that we need to make this a bit of a tribute to her.

“I’m also asking if all six councillors can get together this year because most of the problems we had last year were to do with having the stage to face south, so away from the park homes at the rear which they never did.

“Most of the issues outside were people parking across people’s drive and cars parking on double yellow lines, which is a highways issue, so I’m hoping this year we can get together with the councillors. ”

Last year’s festival took place in August but dates and details for this year’s event have yet to be announced.

Carole Mulroney, councillor responsible for environment, culture and tourism said: “I know the application has gone in and there have been some comments on it because some people were very supportive of it and some weren’t, but it will have to go through the normal processes.

“It’s a big event so it will go through the safety advisory group and all of that and the licence application will go up, so people will have the opportunity to support it or not.

“It was all done relatively at the last minute last year and that worries people and there was a little bit of a problem with the traffic, but with a bigger lead-in time and the knowledge of what happened last time we are in a good position to understand what needs to be done."