THE man behind the £30million regeneration of Pitsea has assured traders he is “on their side” and wants to make the town’s market better than ever.

Nick Burgess director of London and Cambridge Properties, which owns the site, said he has changed plans for the future of the market for the third time, after traders criticised the previous proposals.

He said he has listened to stallholders’ concerns new pitches would be too small and has promised to redraw proposals to make them bigger when the 40-year-old market is moved next year, to make way for a Morrisons superstore.

Mr Burgess said the market could expand over to Northlands Pavement if there was enough demand from traders.

He said: “That’s definitely an option if that’s what people want. We are certainly not trying to make the market smaller. But having it on the pub site will be much more prominent.”

When plans for the market were first touted they were for just a 50-stall market, but Mr Burgess hinted this could rise to 100 under the revised plans.

He said: “There are about 150 pitches at the market at the moment, but a lot of them are empty. We want to create a thriving busy market.”

He also hit back at remarks from stallholders that he doesn’t care about the market.

He said: “If I didn’t care and wasn’t listening to them would I be bothering with any of this? I want to make the market better, I want to make it the best it can be.

“We’ve gone back and got outline drawing to make the pitches bigger. We are doing everything we can to accommodate the traders.”

Last week, the Echo reported traders were upset after finding out changes to the new market would see their pitches shrunk and leave them no place to unload or stash their goods.

The stallholders compiled a 2,500-name petition calling for the plans to be scrapped.

Mr Burgess said: “These plans will improve the market. It will be in a much more prominent location. If we can work together we can make the transition quickly, without closing the market.

“We are not developers, we are landlords.

“We have owned this site for 16 years. I can assure people we’re not here to make a quick buck and sell the site off.”

The market, in Northlands Pavement, is set to be moved just nearby, to the site of the empty Railway Hotel in London Road.

The hotel will be bulldozed as part of the masterplan, which will see new shops built in the heart of the town, as well as the Morrisons store.