IT’S taken six years and cost more than £50,000, but a businessman has finally been given the keys to the empty shops beneath Pier Hill.

Peter Woolf, 49, from Thorpe Bay, first approached South-end Council in 2005 with a view to leasing the site and opening an ice cream kiosk and fish and chip shop beside the new Pier Hill lift.

Wrangles over the leases on both the ground and first floor units and problems with damp meant the deal has dragged on past the point when most would have thrown in the towel.

But Mr Woolf said a mixture of dogged determination and the thought of losing the thousands of pounds he had already spent on legal and architect’s fees made him determined to see the deal through to the bitter end.

The former owner of a Rossi’s ice cream outlet in Thorpe Bay said: “It just went on and on, and I had spent so much money on it I couldn’t let go. Now it’s all finally completed and I have until March and April next year to have the units open. I’ve got plenty of time to sit and think about what to do.

“At the moment, I am still looking at having an ice cream parlour and takeaway on the top, probably selling Joe Delucci’s ice cream and a fish and chip restaurant also selling quality burgers in the bottom unit.”

The units, part of a revamp of Pier Hill, have been dogged with problems with damp seeping in from above. It was subsequently discovered workmen failed to lay a waterproof material beneath paving on Pier Hill, leaving rainwater to run down the walls.

Work to repair the blunder has been costly and lost rent on the properties along with legal fees is estimated to have cost the council around £500,000.

Under the terms of the original agreement made six years ago between Mr Woolf and the council, he will not have to pay the agreed £21,000 rent for both units for three years, meaning it will have been nine years before the council starts making a penny out of the properties.

Independent councillor Ron Woodley has been critical of the delays and the cost to council taxpayers. He welcomed the completion of the deal, but said: “I kept raising it with the council and I’m glad I did because I think otherwise it might have taken another two to three years.”