An authorised traveller site could be turned into offices if plans are approved.

Basildon Council is considering whether to allow AWG Doors permission to install a temporary building for offices in connection with garage sales at the Former Heron service station off the A127 at North Benfleet.

In January the Echo revealed how the legal plot had gone on the market for £150,000 and council chiefs claimed it would be a suitable site for travellers appealing to remain at an unauthorised site in London Road, Sadlers Farm.

But according to planning agent R Edwards Associates the site was snapped up by AWG Doors for the proposed business venture.

The former petrol station was granted permission for occupation by gipsy families in 2002. An application for change of use to a car wash was refused a year later.

Council leader Malcolm Buckley said previously when it went on the market that "sales such as this highlight that when travellers say at appeals there is nowhere else to go, that there is a vacant site in the district."