A WAR of words has erupted between political leaders over who stands to benefit from a £1billion town centre masterplan.

The Basildon Conservatives claim council leader Gavin Callaghan and fellow Labour councillor Aiden McGurran failed to declare a vested interest in the major plan, which includes 4,000 new homes and 5,000-seat event arena.

However, Mr Callaghan hit back at the Tories publicly, blasting their claims as “a vein attempt at a pointless, groundless, publicity stunt”.

In a letter to Basildon Council chief executive, Scott Logan, Tory leader Andrew Baggott said: “I am formally writing to you in connection with what we, the Conservative Group, feel to be a serious breach of regulations and probity.

“On March 14 I received a letter from Cratus Communications acting behalf of Orwell Real Estate, one of the developers concerned with Market Square in Basildon, inviting me to meet with them to discuss the potential development. On March 16, at a briefing on the town centre attended by myself and officers, I raised concerns because I believed Cratus had a link to Cllr Callaghan.

“Officers initially thought I must be mistaken and to clarify I conducted a web-search on the company and established that Cllr Callaghan was listed on the Cratus website as director - Cratus Strategic, Cllr Aiden McGurran, currently a frontbench member of the administration, is also listed on the Cratus website as associate director - media and public relations.”

As a point of fact, the firm is no longer involved in the project but Mr Baggott contends the pair should have declared an interest in the project, which was agreed by authority’s town centre revival committee agreed the draft masterplan on Wednesday night.

Mr Callaghan has since hit back, defending himself and Mr McGurran in a public Facebook post, which states: “The letter contains multiple factual inaccuracies and insinuations about our involvement in the town centre masterplan and our employment.

“They seek to undermine our honesty and denigrate our character publicly. We have always acted entirely above board and in accordance with the rules and advice given to us by senior councillor officers.

“Any suggestion that we have acted otherwise is simply wrong and malicious.”

The next stage of the project will be a six-week consultation starting on June 1, conducted online and making use of virtual technologies.