Southend-on-Sea News Stories

Police close Southbourne Grove

Police have closed off access to Southbourne Grove from the London Road. Five police vehicles are in attendance at this time (1615 Friday 03 Sept). There is no access to Southbourne Grove, causing delays on the A13 London Road around that junction. We’ve just been told that the incident in question relates to a raid [...]

TJ Hughes Opens on old Woolworths Site

The new TJ Hughes store has just opened on Southend High Street, in the building that used to house the town’s Woolworths. TJ Hughes is a discount department store, and offers a range of products across home, textiles, beauty & fragrance, menswear, lingerie, toys and electrical. Work started at the site several weeks ago, as [...]

Westcliff-on-Sea accident Southbourne Grove 14 Aug 2010

Emergency vehicles on scene at junction of Prittlewell Chase, Kenilworth Gardens and Southbourne Grove at 7:50pm Saturday 14 August 2010. Taxi plus one other car involved. Three fire vehicles in attendance with cutting gear. Two ambulances, plus two police units in attendance. Police have closed westbound traffic along Kenilworth Gardens and are manually controlling the [...]

Southend Carnival 2010 opens

The Southend Carnival launched today, and runs until Saturday the 21st of August. The main focus of the annual August event is the fair held at Chalkwell Park. It’s open from 2pm to 10pm (8pm Sunday) with fairground rides, win-a-fluffy-thing stalls and lots of candyfloss. The highlight of the carnival is the illuminated “torchlight” parade [...]

Incident at Southend Central station

Blogging live from a serious incident at Southend Central Station 2300 Tuesday 10th August. In attendance, four fire engines, one ambulance, two rapid response vehicles and seven police cars. Clifftown Road closed. c2c trains suspended. Just seen two police officers leading away a man in handcuffs. At least 6 fire brigade personnel inside railway station. [...]

Leigh-on-Sea on TV tonight

Leigh-on-Sea will be featured tonight on ITV documentary “Countrywise at War”, looking at one cockle-boat, the Endeavour, and how it played its part in the Dunkirk landings. More on Countrywise. The documentary is on ITV1 tonight (Sunday 8th August 2010) at 7pm. If you miss it, it’s likely to be available via the ITV Player

Sky Roadshow hits Southend

Although the Digital TV Switchover won’t affect most Southenders until April 2012, Sky’s been busy in Southend Town Centre, as it’s the first day of their four day “Sky Southend-on-Sea Roadshow“. If you happen to be at the Odeon end of Southend High Street between today, the 29th of July, and Sunday the 1st of [...]

Leigh Folk Festival 2010

This weekend, Old Leigh played host to the Leigh Folk Festival. although it was a swelteringly hot day on Sunday, the crowds turned out in force to watch a day of free live music, street theatre, dancing, concerts, comedy and a parade. If you’re interested, there’s a small selection of photos of the 2010 Leigh [...]

iPhone 4 queues gather in Southend

Another day, another iPhone launch! Queues started forming well before 6am outside the Southend o2 store for today’s launch of the Apple iPhone 4. At at 7am, the queue already numbers 50. Update: By 8am, queues continues to grow to at least 150. o2 staff came to inform those beyond a certain point, by our [...]

Live from Freedom of Southend Parade

Live from the Freedom of Southend Parade, Southend High Street, 17 June 2010. The 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, back from their third tour of duty in Afganistan are currently marching down Southend High Street, being cheered by thousands of locals. The troops have just been inspected by the Mayor, the Deputy Colonel of [...]

Crowds gather for Southend parade

Crowds are gathering in Southend High Street for this afternoon’s parade to welcome home soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglican Regiment, back from their third tour of duty in Afganistan. Crowds started gathering at around 11am, with many waving the Union Jack. The parade is expected to start at 1230. The scene from [...]

Ninety Years of Radio in Essex

Today, the 15th of June 2010 marks a historic day for radio broadcasting, and it all happened here in Essex. Many Southenders will remember the birth of the first local radio station for Southend-on-Sea as Essex Radio, back in September 1981, broadcasting from Clifftown Road, but the first real radio station from Essex, was MZX, [...]

Leigh-on-Sea fire 4 June 2010

Locals in Leigh-on-Sea wondering what the commotion in the Eastwood Boulevard / Cavendish Gardens at the moment, note that two fire engines from Southend station are in attendance at a fire on waste ground off Nelson Road, next to the old Albany Laundry site. Smoke is billowing from what looks like a blue hut or [...]

Vote for Little Havens Children’s Hospice

Little Havens Children’s Hospice in Thundersley needs your vote as it goes head to head with other Lottery-funded projects from across the UK in the semi-finals of The National Lottery Awards 2010. The National Lottery Awards are an annual search to find the UK s favourite Lottery-funded projects, and Little Havens Children’s Hospice is one [...]

Southend Airshow Day One

Day One of the Southend Air Show (“Festival of the Air”) is drawing to a close. Visibility’s been great, but the high winds have caused a couple of displays to be cancelled, including the Battle of Britain flypast. The winds have not stopped some impressive flying from various RAF aircraft, a display by the rescue [...]

Southend Airshow Weekend

In case it’s escaped your notice, this weekend is a bank holiday weekend, and in Southend, it’s the Southend Airshow. Two days of aircraft buzzing the crowds gathered below along Southend seafront. Taking part this year wil be the Mustang, Sabra, Sea King, RAF Falcons, Kittyhawk, the Typhoon and the Tornado. There will also be a Battle [...]

New train timetables in May 2010

Note to commuters and users of train services into and out of Southend… From Sunday 23rd May 2010, the timetables for c2c and National Express East Anglia will be changing. You can now download or browse the new timetables: New C2C Timetable: www.c2c-online.co.uk/travel_information/train_timetable New National Express Timetable: www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com/travel_information/train_timetables

New Southend Essentials Guide

A new addition to our site – Southend Essentials. Southend Essentials is a handy one-page guide to visiting Southend-on-Sea. It’s intended as a single sheet that you can print out and bring with you. The guide includes train times, phone numbers, attractions, food and drink, plus accommodation. It’s available as a PDF (for one-page printing), [...]

Southend Election Results

Thanks to one of our regulars for pointing out that we’ve not posted a summary of the results of the 2010 elections. We’re sure you know the results, but a recap never hurts. In the General Election: Southend West: 46% of votes to Conservative. David Amess MP remains Rochford and Southend East: 47% of votes [...]

Southend voting under way

It can’t have escaped your notice, but the people of Essex are today voting in the General and Local Elections. We’ve checked in with a couple of polling stations in the Southend West constituency, and are told that turnout is good – higher than in previous elections. The scene at one polling station in Leigh-on-Sea [...]