The site was occupied by Frasier's Cafe-bar.

Planning Application 07/00515/FULL from Eastern Square (Essex) Limited, is for a new building containing 5 retail units and 36 flats. This was PASSED by the council on 3rd July. A previous application for this site for a medical centre and 30 sheltered flats was refused last year.

Approved 5 storey block of flats for Frasier's site

Sylvia Buckley, chair of the planning committee, said "This will be a good thing for the ward, it's a step in the right direction". She turned down the previous application for the Medical Centre and 30 sheltered flats, and council leader Malcolm Buckley said "We have already rejected similar plans for a sheltered housing scheme, without medical centre, on the site last year and defeated an appeal because the planning inspector agreed it was in conflict with the masterplan." 
Is this joined up thinking, or am I a walrus?

The Wickford Action Group view
We felt that the previous application for a medical centre on this site would have been a good addition to the town's facilities, but this was turned down by the planning committee on the basis that this area is set out in the Masterplan as having "a strong leisure and recreational theme".
This present application does not comply with this, nor does it offer existing residents any benefits. We therefore regard it as another example of overdevelopment - and an ugly one at that!

See also the Recorder article on the subject of medical centres: 'Healthcare officials fear centre crisis' 
"HEALTH chiefs fear Basildon will face a crisis if more medical centres are not built to cope with increased housing levels. Basildon Council has to find sites for 10,700 homes over the next decade, but primary care trust bosses fear not enough health centres are being planned."

News links:
GP facility is dropped Billericay & Wickford Gazette 11 July 2007