The scheme, which will be completed over the next five years, will include shops, a new cinema, restaurants and bars as well as a new market and college. The plans also contain scope for a future extension of the Towngate Theatre.
Following approval by the Council's cabinet, the masterplan will be adopted as an Interim Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). It will form part of the Council's emerging Local Development Framework (LDF) and inform future planning decisions.
The Council has worked up the plans jointly with its development partner Barratt Wilson Dowden. Work on the plans started in 2010 and updates were made following a public and stakeholder consultation earlier this year.
“This is one of the biggest town centre redevelopments in the country and I am delighted the masterplan has been approved," said Basildon Council's cabinet member for regeneration, Malcolm Buckley. “[We] now have a really ambitious, but realistic and commercially viable scheme that will transform the town for the benefit of local people, businesses and visitors.”
