A SUMMIT is being held over ambitious plans to attract the wind farm industry to an Essex port.

Civic chiefs in Tendring want to make Harwich a major hub for manufacturing and maintaining wind farm turbines.

If their ambitions are realised they believe the industry could create up to 48,000 jobs and boost the local economy by hundreds of millions.

Bernard Jenkin, the town’s MP, has called the summit to bring together the public and private sectors to discuss the opportunities the plans could create.

It comes less than a week after Tendring District Council (TDC) launched a �5m funding bid to build a skills and business centre in Harwich, to support the wind farm industry.

Cllr Neil Stock, leader of TDC, will be among a team of executives from the authority to attend Friday’s summit, which is being held at Essex County Council in Chelmsford.

He said: “We have pledged to work very closely with all our partners to achieve our ultimate goal of a wind port in Harwich.

“Our bid for �5m for the business centre is a significant landmark and the first summit is equally important in bringing together the public and private sector to discuss the issues and challenges we face.

“We need to all be pulling in the same direction for this initiative to succeed for the sake of not only the residents of Harwich but those across the whole of Tendring.”

TDC said the wind farm industry is currently emerging at a rapid rate as the Government strives to increase the amount of electricity produced from renewable sources.

A wind port can provide facilities for manufacturing, installation and commissioning of turbines as well as operation and maintenance.