A pair of restaurants and a new pub could move into a building dubbed a "carbuncle site" following a costly letting error.

At the beginning of December Epping Forest District Council asked for £84,000 in construction fees along with £56,000 in specialist legal costs to finish the Landmark Site in The Broadway, Debden.

While the site was leased to Higgins Home Plc to provide 64 homes and retail units in 2013, the council's failure to install extractor fans along with other issues meant the commercial units cannot be let.

At a full council meeting on December 20 members were asked to approve the additional costs, prompting Loughton Town Mayor Cllr Stephen Murray to lambast a development built where the much loved Winston Churchill Pub once stood.

He said: "The idea in Loughton is that this was rushed.

"There was a movement to list the Winston Churchill Pub as a community asset and there is a belief that the development was pushed through.

"It is almost a universal view in Loughton that this is one of the worst buildings we have.

"A building doesn't call itself a landmark it becomes one as it is admired and respected.

"I would call it the carbuncle site."

Economic portfolio holder Cllr Anne Grigg said the council was "holding (its) hands up" before suggesting two restaurants and one pub were destined for the retail units once they were finished.

She also denied any attempt to push the project through before the Winston Churchill could be community listed.

After Cllr Howard Kauffman questioned whether The Broadway - where numerous outlets have closed this year, including the six-month-old Green Owl Canteen - needed two more restaurants, leader Cllr Chris Whitbread argued the Landmark Site would prove an economic boon.

He said: "We shouldn't miss the bigger picture on this.

"We have to invest an extra £140,000 now, but it is going to bring in an additionally £250,000 a year.

"I think this will be an asset to the locality once it is up and running."