PLANS to redesign a £45million seafront museum have been branded a waste of money.

Campaigners have criticised Southend Council’s hunt for designers to work on futuristic plans for the Thames Estuary Museum, on the crumbling cliffs in Western Esplanade, before funding has been secured for the scheme.

The council is set to pay £1.3million for the right team of architects and designers for the museum, which will house precious artefacts from the Saxon King burial site dug up in Prittlewell in 2003, but says it is still working on securing grants.

The Saxon King in Priory Park campaign group issued a statement saying the council had already spent enough money on the plans.

Committee members Patsy Link, Sheena Walker and Mark Sharp said: “Our council is prepared to spend another £1.3 million on architects for the already ridiculously expensive cliff slip museum.

“How many more times will our council be willing to waste our taxpayers’ money while they hopelessly look for someone to fund this inappropriate folly?”

The group argued that the Saxon King remains and gold-encrusted relics should stay near where they were found.

The group called for a mini-historical village next to the burial site instead of the new museum.

Some of the Saxon relics are currently in storage in the borough, while the most important items are on show in a London museum.

The new museum will also house other nationally important finds such as those from the 17th century shipwreck of HMS London, which divers have recovered off Southend Pier.

A council spokesman said money already spent on the plans was for the exterior of the building. He added: “The architectural tender is for detailed design work, predominantly of the interior of the Thames Estuary Museum.

“This was not covered when we applied for planning consent and it is a necessary stage in the process of making our plans a reality for the town.

“We are at the early stages of bringing forward the museum. We are in the process of forming a charitable trust, to be managed independently of the council, whose job it will be to drive forward delivery and raise the £45million we estimate will be needed.

“Clearly, raising this sum of money is a long-term project but we believe it is achievable.”