Scores of sailors are up in arms over a proposal by a seaside burger bar proprietor’s plans to build a mud lagoon which they say will block access to their launching slipway.

Members of the Alexandra Yacht Club – once the venue for J Class race crews – at Southend-on-Sea, Essex, fear the 120 metre sheet steel-piled caisson which would be three metres above sea level, will obstruct and silt up their jetty on the foreshore.

But fast food cafe owner Dave Rayment says his proposals will provide a Low Water swimming pool for kids to play in when the tide is out.

One AYC member contacted Yachting Monthly to say: ‘This proposal will change the contours of the seabed and mean that we will not be able to use our slipway which is used not just by yacht club members but also the Sea Cadets.’