Big new fire-fighting pumps and a sewage treatment station to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds are to be built on Southend Pier this winter.

Contractors are due to move on to the mile-plus Grade II listed structure in the next few weeks to begin work after councillors consider the plan on Wednesday.

The pier will remain open to the public throughout the works which are expected to take at least four months.

The council's pier and foreshore officer Marjorie Hall said the project was the biggest they had undertaken for many years.

She said: "We have been looking at installing new high volume fire-fighting pumps for some time. With the need for this other, in effect, gigantic plumbing, we felt it was an ideal time to do the work."

A final cost for the project is still to be worked out, although the council is in discussions with contractors.

The plan coincides with the start of building work on a new lifeboat station on the pier by the RNLI.

The new pumps will be installed at the end of the pier and will be fed by seawater, while the sewage system should cut pollution to the Thames Estuary.

Mrs Hall said they had been working with the fire service for some time on ways to improve the fire-fighting facilities on the pier.

The last major fire at the pier was in 1995 which engulfed the bowling alley.

The biggest fire to hit the pier was in 1976 when the pier head was devastated.

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