Good morning Southend, it’s been a while.

Some of you may remember signing up to this newsletter about two years ago now. My plan was to be consistent with weekly posts, bringing you the latest news from the Southend area, upcoming events, and shining a light on local business and people.

It’s time consuming putting together all this information every week and life got in the way. However, I’ve increasingly become more aware and frustrated by the state of local journalism in this area. Local Facebook groups are riddled with negativity and political vitriol, more established publications operate terrible websites with hundreds of ads, and no one is writing about all the good that comes from this area!

So I’m trying it again. I’m open to feedback on the format – for now, its going to be a few top stories of the week, upcoming events, highlighting a piece of a local history, how Southend Utd are doing, and then finishing with a list of news stories. This edition was rather rushed, I only had an hour or two to put it together, hopefully I’ll have more time over the next few weeks to get the workflow down.

If you end up reading this regularly and find it useful, forward it to a friend, it’ll really help.

Let’s get into it… in today’s Southend Spotlight:

Don’t forget to check out the upcoming events list at the bottom of this email and to forward this email to anyone you know that may be interested.

This Saturday Southend becomes a whole lot brighter.

Not only do we have the annual Christmas light switch on event at 6pm, but Southend Pier’s festoon lighting returns for the first time in over 20 years! It is also the penultimate week of the Saturday fireworks.

So if you’re looking for a Saturday afternoon and evening plan:

Enjoy!

The Three Shells Lagoon was forced to close back in March following an incident where a mother and daughter became trapped in the wet sand. Since then the lagoon has been left to fester and quite frankly stink out that section of a seafront. I frequently pass by the sectioned-off lagoon when I’m out on a run and I can tell you, it smells bad.

Last month the council discussed plans to remove the ‘disaster seafront lagoon’ with city councillor Matt Dent calling it "flawed from the very start".

The decision has now been made to demolish the site and return it to its natural beach form. The lagoon was initially built in 2015-2016 at a cost of £1.95 but has been under constant scrutiny from locals, including Philip Miller who owns and operates the neighbouring Adventure Island.

The demolition is set to begin in the spring of 2027, take eight to ten weeks and cost £800,000.

I personally think it’s a good decision to remove the lagoon rather than attempt to replace it with another attraction, which may suffer the same fate if it proves just as difficult to maintain. Many people are of course shocked by the cost of the demolition, I have no insight into how this money is spent and why it costs so much, maybe we’ll find out at some point?

I’ve focused on some smaller events here, due to the bigger events being highlighted in the above section. For those that would prefer a quieter weekend than you’ll find along the hgih street and seafront this weekend.

Friday 13th Nov

Southend RNLI Comedy Night will be taking place from 7pm at the Chalkwell Park Rooms.

Three acts are on the lineup, bar meals are available and there will be a cash raffle on the night with all proceeds going towards the RNLI,

Saturday 13th Nov

The Folk & Bespoke Craft Fair is a day full of creativity, craftsmanship, and community spirit at Leigh Community Centre.

Folk & Bespoke prides itself as being different, a celebration of small independent businesses and time served craftspeople, Folk & Bespoke aims to bring you something different every month!

The Southend Utd manager Kieron Dyer received a red card in the final minutes of the Shrimpers 2-2 draw with Halifax Town last month following a confrontation with the ref.

The boss has now been handed a one-match touchline ban, while the teams goalkeeping coach Anssi Jaakkola has received a six-match ban. The bans are with immediate effect, so the Southend Utd manager will be watching his team from the stands for this Saturday’s game against Aldershot Town.

The 20-year-old goalkeeper Joe Duncan joined Southend on loan from Championship side Bristol City and quickly became Southend’s number one keeper, as well as receiving Southend Player of the Month this August.

This will be Duncan’s first call-up to the senior international squad, having previously played for the Under-21s Welsh side. Wales are set to play Norway on Saturday and Portugal on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading this week’s Southend Spotlight.

— Tom McCloud