CAMPAIGNERS against a new seawall on Shoebury Common fear their concerns are not being taken seriously enough - and are now delivering 5,000 warning leaflets around the area.

This comes after Southend Council wrote to opponents of the £4.5million plan, for an earth embankment to protect against flooding, to say it lacks the resources to answer their “complex and technical” questions.

Friends of Shoebury Common members Peter Lovett, Ray Bailey and Daphne Johnson are not convinced by the council’s flood risk assessment - and asked officers to cost an alternative scheme.

Richard Atkins, the authority’s coastal defences engineer, said it would keep their questions “on file” and answer them as part of a public consultation due to start on Monday, April 15.

Mr Lovett, 66, who has received scores of letters and emails from residents outraged by the plan, said: “It makes you feel as though you don’t count for anything.

“We are the electors.

“I’m not saying we are the only electors, but we have got more than 200 people saying how much they support us and how horrified they are that this monstrosity is going ahead.”