I can feel a bout of deja vu here as this reminds me of when Sobart Air moved Waterford - Luton to Southend and then split the flights so both Luton and Southend served Waterford. In the end it all ended in tears. I hope this is not a repeat of what happened then.
Skywork needs to give this route more time to mature and to hang in there. Southend need this service to succeed otherwise it will send a powerful message to any other airline contemplating moving a route to Southend from City.