EXPANSION plans for the Port of Tilbury will see 3,000 new jobs created by the end of next year.

A planning application, due to be submitted in the new year, will bring hundreds of extra jobs to the old Tilbury Power Station site.

The major expansion should provide a boost to jobseekers across south Essex, and beyond, as port bosses say they will have to look far and wide to fill vacancies.

Chief operating officer Perry Glading said there were “not enough unemployed people locally to fill demand”.

He added the port was looking intensively at infrastructure in the region to best cope with demand as trade at the port was forecast to double over the next 15 years.

Planned projects on the port site for next year include 1,100 jobs at the Tilbury Perkins site, an Amazon warehouse off the Asda roundabout set to bring 1,500 jobs in spring 2017, along with 700 jobs at the new NFT Distribution facility.

The Amazon site will be the “largest warehouse in the UK” once it is built, Mr Glading added.

Because of the influx of new jobs, Mr Glading said the port was backing route four, a tunnel linking East Tilbury with Kent, in ongoing discussions about a second Thames crossing.

He added: “The number of jobs we are creating here are not going to be solved by locals living in Thurrock.

If we have access to Kent, it provides jobs for that side of the river as much as this side.”

Mr Glading said they were intent on building “with the cooperation of the community” and regular meetings were being held with the Tilbury Community Forum and the Thurrock Park Residents’ Association to see how growth could be made “organically”.

Tony Coughlin of the Thurrock Park Residents’ Association said: “Thurrock is blessed with low unemployment but I think any new jobs are a blessing.”

New jobs on the latest former Tilbury Power Station site will go ahead once demolition of the existing station is completed, and subject to approval of planning permission granted in January.

MP Jackie Doyle-Price said the Roads Minister John Hayes is due to make a decision in a matter of weeks on the crossing public consultation.

She added: “It is abundantly clear that expanding capacity at the current crossing will not do. What is needed is a new orbital road. Route four will see a new road built to directly connect with the A127 with no new M25 junction in Ockendon. It is the only possible choice.”