Despite me being a Southend resident and also relishing the idea of me being able to get to the Lakes quickly, I do agree with you LTNman that such a service with seemingly little appeal does seem an extravagent use of taxpayer money.
However if the governemnt of the day has put such funds up for application then I guess Sobart would be silly not to try, despite it conveniently supporting two of their airports and their airline.