Frinton folk fear first pub is start of new blitz

THEY are calling it the worst day for Frinton-on-Sea since the Luftwaffe bombed the town in 1944 - the Essex seaside resort has finally agreed to have a pub.

The proposed JD Wetherspoon pub has not gone down well with all Frinton's elderly residents, who fear it may herald a string of night clubs and amusement arcades.

More than 1,000 people in Frinton-on-Sea - where over half of the 5,000 residents are aged 65 or older - opposed the application to convert the town's oldest business, an ironmongery in Connaught Avenue, into a pub.

Although permission was rejected last October, the council approved a new application by two votes last week.

Roy Caddick, secretary of the Frinton Residents' Association, reportedly said the decision marked Frinton's worst day since the German bombing - although the bitterly opposed opening of a fish-and-chip shop in 1992 seems to be a close contender.

A spokesman for JD Wetherspoon said it still needed a licence to proceed.

The pub, at 2,000sq ft, will be relatively small by Wetherspoon standards, but the spokes-man joked that a 9,000sq ft site "would have taken over the whole of Frinton".