A SHOPPING centre hit by development delays has turned into a dilapidated eyesore according to residents.

The Laindon Shopping Centre in High Road, Laindon has now got rubbish strewn everywhere, a car park littered with potholes, unemptied and overflowing bins and hoarding which has fallen down revealing even more bags of litter.

People living near to the centre say it is increasingly becoming even more of an eyesore to look at and Colonnade the developers who own the site are near impossible to contact.

Councillors Pat and Phil Rackley – both Labour ward members for the St Martin’s ward – who live in Devonshire Road, Laindon said the dilapidated centre is looking worse by the day.

Mrs Rackley said: “It’s absolutely horrendous.

“The other week I had to go to the doctors near the centre and some hoarding had fallen down and behind it the area was full of black rubbish sacks overflowing with rubbish.

“It just looks awful.

“In recent months they stopped emptying the bins.

“We tried to speak to Colonnade, but they won’t speak to us, so the council’s officers were having to contact them.”

Mr Rackley added: “Every morning when I go to get my newspaper at the centre the bins are overflowing and are not being emptied.

“It does make one wonder what their commitment is to the redevelopment of the centre is going to be when they can’t even keep it tidy. People are fed up with it.”

Colonnade refused to comment when contacted by the Echo.

It is thought Laindon Regeneration – which is an offshoot of development firm Colonnade – plans to one day build at least 300 homes and a new shopping centre on the site, but no plans have so far been submitted to Basildon Council.

Further doubt was cast over the development’s future in 2010 when the Echo revealed Colonnade Residential and Colonnade Asset Management had gone into administration while Colonnade Projects was put into liquidation and Colonnade Commercial was dissolved.

Plans for the site first emerged in 2004, but nothing has materialised since.