ALMOST 4,000 signatures have been added to a petition calling for Canvey Town Council to be “removed” ... but hundreds have been branded “invalid” ahead of a debate.

Castle Point Council will meet next week to debate the petition, set up by the Friends of Canvey Lake campaign group, calling for a vote of no confidence in the town council over its “failure” to protect the lake.

The motivation for the petition was over the “declining” state of the lake, which according to the group chair, Alan Tibbitt, has left it in a “woeful” state causing the “death of thousands of fish”.

According to council documents ahead of the meeting next Wednesday, the petition has gained 3,783 signatures.

However, council officers have claimed the petition only “has a total of 3,582 estimated valid entries”.

The community is also calling for a referendum among residents to vote on the “removal of the town council”.

Mr Tibbitt said: “We are proud of the Canvey community for uniting and collecting thousands of signatures. The town council was formed to help Canvey, and it has been worse under their control.

“As expected the council are using every trick in the book to make the petition invalid.

“Using the excuse that some sheets had save Canvey Lake on them is nit-picking to say the least and the fact that they have not checked every address and ‘estimated’ a number of points shows, to me, the desperation they have in allowing a referendum.

“All petitions have exceptions where people from out of the area sign, but in this case they are negligible, and we set ourselves a time limit.

“In this case, even with their worst case scenario, nine per cent of voting people on Canvey have signed to say they have ‘no confidence’ in the town council. When only around 25 per cent of the population actually voted on Canvey in the elections this petition shows a huge amount of dissent amongst the population.”

Previously in 2022 the lake suffered issues with toxic algae which led to the death of fish and wildlife, with the group repeatedly pressuring the town council to act.

According to council documents, because of the number of “valid” signatures does no longer reach 10 per cent, the petition does not amount to a “valid community governance petition and the council is not, therefore, required to commence a community governance review”.

Canvey Town Council and Castle Point Council declined to comment.