Mecca Bingo is to create 16 new jobs as it invests £1.5 million in a makeover of its popular bingo club in Southend.

The club on Greyhound Way will have a bar and restaurant upgrade, a new outside seated area and better toilet facilities.

The Southend Councillor for enterprise, Ian Robertson, is delighted with news particularly as it includes new part-time and full-time jobs at the club.

He commented: “Any increase in employment for Southend is always welcome.

“Particularly the kind of jobs they are creating that provide all year round employment.

“They are much more valuable than summer jobs.

“It is good for Southend and good for unemployed people too.

“We are always desperately trying to get more and more people to come into Southend and this is a good start.”

Regular bingo players at the club are also looking forward to the fact that their clubs getting new investment. Margaret Murphy, 84, has been playing bingo at the club since it opened in 1992 added: “At the moment it is all up in the air. But they reckon we are going to have super loos and this outside area with tables.

“The restuarant is going to be upgraded and we are going to have a nice bar.”

The regular bingo player who lives in Springwater Road, Eastwood, plays twice a week at the Mecca Bingo club currently goes twice per week but thinks the improvements may mean shoe makes more visits each week.

She added: “It is social, I have got quite a few friends there.

“On your birthday they send you a card and I get my main session free, I get a drink at the bar and I can bring home a bottle of bubbly.”