Thurrock Council

Thurrock Council
Third of council elected three years out of four
Coat of arms
Type
Type	Unitary authority
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Mayor	Cllr Barbara Rice Since 23 May 2018
Leader of the Council	Cllr Rob Gledhill, Conservative Since 25 May 2016
Opposition Leader	Cllr Oliver Gerrish, Labour Since 23 May 2018
Structure
Seats	49 councillors
Political groups	Administration      Conservative (20) Other parties      Labour (17)      Thurrock Independents (12)
Length of term	4 years
Motto
Secundum Tamesim Quovis Gentium
Meeting place
Civic Offices, New Road, Grays
Website
www.thurrock.gov.uk
Constitution
Constitution

Thurrock Council is the local council for the borough of Thurrock in Essex, England. Since 1997, Thurrock has been a unitary authority, combining the functions of a non-metropolitan county with that of a non-metropolitan district. The other such authority in Essex is Southend-on-Sea. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association.

History

Thurrock District Council was first elected in 1973, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the Thurrock District on 1 April 1974. It replaced Thurrock Urban District Council, which governed a slightly larger area including part of Basildon New Town and had been formed in 1936 as an amalgamation of Grays Thurrock Urban District Council, Purfleet Urban District Council, Tilbury Urban District Council, and Orsett Rural District Council including associated parish councils; a result of the Local Government Act 1929. The council received borough status, permitting the council to be known as Thurrock Borough Council. Until 1992 it was constituted as non-metropolitan district council in a two-tier arrangement, sharing service provision with Essex County Council.

As a result of the 1992 Local Government Commission for England on 1 April 1998 Thurrock absorbed the powers of Essex County Council for its area, becoming a unitary authority. The planning function for large developments was exercised by the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation in the whole of the borough from 2003 to 2012. The development corporation was absorbed by the council on 1 April 2012.

Election results and council control

Prior to the 2015 local election, the council was run by a Labour minority administration, after the Labour Party lost its small majority at the 2014 election. Thurrock had previously been a hung council for several years after the Conservatives lost control in 2007.^[1]

Since 1997 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:^[2]

All 17 UKIP councillors left the party in January 2018 to form Thurrock Independents.^[3]

Composition

Thurrock is divided into 20 wards and elects 49 councillors. One-third of the council is elected every year on a four-year term and so elections are held in three-year blocks (e.g. in 2014, 2015, and 2016; one will not be held in 2017; then in 2018, 2019, etc.) Councillors are elected through first-past-the-post voting. There are 19^[4] committees, including:

• Cabinet
• Corporate parenting
• General services
• Health and wellbeing board
• Licensing
• Planning
• Standards and audit
• Corporate Scrutiny
• Cleaner, Greener and Safer Scrutiny
• Children's Services Scrutiny
• Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny
• Housing Scrutiny

Electoral wards

The borough's 20 electoral wards and corresponding representatives are:^[5][6]

Electoral ward		Year of election
No.	Name	2015		2016		2018
1	Aveley and Uplands		Peter Smith (TI)		Luke Spillman (TI)		Tim Aker (TI)
2	Ockendon		Andrew Jefferies (Con)		David Potter (TI)		Sue Shinnick (Lab)
3	Belhus		Graham Hamilton (TI)		Angela Sheridan (TI)		Mike Fletcher (Lab)
4	West Thurrock and South Stifford		Victoria Holloway (Lab)		Oliver Gerrish (Lab)		Qaisar Abbas (Lab)
5	South Chafford	N/A			Suzanne MacPherson (Con)		Abbie Akinbohun (Lab)
6	Chafford and North Stifford		Mark Coxshall (Con)		Garry Hague (Con)	N/A
7	Grays Riverside		Jane Pothecary (Lab)		Tony Fish (Lab)		Martin Kerin (Lab)
8	Grays Thurrock		Cathy Kent (Lab)		John Kent (Lab)		Lynn Worrall (Lab)
9	Stifford Clays		Leslie Gamester (TI)	N/A			Elizabeth Rigby (Con)
10	Little Thurrock Blackshots	N/A			Jocelyn Redsell (Con)		Ben Maney (Con)
11	Little Thurrock Rectory		Tom Kelly (Con)	N/A			Rob Gledhill (Con)
12	Thurrock Riverside and Thurrock Park		Clare Baldwin (Lab)	N/A			Bukky Okunade (Lab)
13	Tilbury St. Chads	N/A			John Allen (TI)		Steve Liddiard (Lab)
14	Chadwell St. Mary		Russell Cherry (TI)		Gerard Rice (Lab)		Barbara Rice (Lab)
15	East Tilbury		James Baker (TI)		Sue Sammons (TI)	N/A
16	Stanford-Le-Hope West		Shane Hebb (Con)		Terry Piccolo (Con)	N/A
17	Corringham and Fobbing		Deborah Huelin (Con)		Aaron Watkins (Con)	N/A
18	Stanford East and Corringham Town		Colin Churchman (Con)		Jack Duffin (TI)		Alex Anderson (Con)
19	The Homesteads		Pauline Tolson (Con)		Gary Collins (Con)		James Halden (Con)
20	Orsett	N/A			Susan Little (Con)		Barry Johnson (Con)

Mayor

The Mayor is elected at the annual meeting which is held following council elections or in May in years when there are no council elections. The most recent mayors have been:

• 2004/05 — Ian Harrison
• 2005/06 — Colin Churchman
• 2006/07 — Joy Redsell
• 2007/08 — Diane Revell
• 2008/09 — John Everett
• 2009/10 — Maureen Pearce
• 2010/11 — Anne Cheale
• 2011/12 — Charles Curtis
• 2012/13 — Yash Gupta
• 2013/14 — Tony Fish
• 2014/15 — Steve Liddiard
• 2015/16 — Sue Gray
• 2016/17 — Cathy Kent
• 2017/18 — Tunde Ojetola^[7]
• 2018/19 — Barbara Rice

See also

Thurrock, the area with borough status which this Council administers.

References