Intu has submitted an outline planning application to create a £100m leisure development at intu Lakeside, its shopping centre in Thurrock.

The development will create a series of outdoor spaces around a large town square, featuring a range of leisure and restaurant outlets and a hotel.

The public spaces will host a busy events programme, including farmers’ and Christmas markets, street theatre, music shows and live screenings of big sporting events.

The new public spaces will link the existing shopping centre with Alexandra Lake and will include a waterfront area, including a new boardwalk and park next to the lake.

Discussions are already underway with potential tenants, including tenpin bowling a health club, a comedy venue and restaurants.

The move comes after public consultation showed 82 per cent of respondents would spend more time at the centre if additional leisure facilities were available.

Asset management director for intu, Jonathan Ainsley, says: “We’re passionate about providing people with the perfect shopping experience and the new leisure development will attract more people, from a wider area, and provide a great reason for them to stay with us for even longer.”

BACKGROUND

Retail competition in London has increased dramatically in recent years with the opening of Westfield shopping centres in west London (2008) and at the Olympic Park in east London (2011).

These followed on from the development of Bluewater centre in 1999 and Lakeside, which opened in 1990 and was the first 'mall' in the south-east.