Thurrock Council
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.
Thurrock Council | |
|---|---|
| Third of council elected three years out of four | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1 April 1974 |
| Leadership | |
Mayor of Thurrock | Cllr Terry Piccolo since 22nd May 2019 |
Leader of the Council | |
Chief executive | Lyn Carpenter since September 2015 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 49 councillors |
_council_2019.svg.png.webp) | |
Political groups |
|
Length of term | 4 years |
| Motto | |
| Secundum Tamesim Quovis Gentium | |
| Meeting place | |
| Civic Offices, New Road, Grays | |
| Website | |
| www | |
| Constitution | |
| Constitution | |
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 1998 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]
| Year | Control | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Labour | ||
| 2004 | Conservative | ||
| 2007 | No overall control | Conservative-led administration | |
| 2010 | No overall control | Labour-led administration | |
| 2012 | Labour | ||
| 2014 | No overall control | Labour largest group | |
| 2016 | No overall control | Conservative-led administration | |
| 2018 | No overall control | Conservative-led administration | |
| 2019 | Conservative | ||
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 | 2016 | 2018 | 2019 | |||
| 1 | Aveley and Uplands | Luke Spillman (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | Tim Aker (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | Colin Churchman (Con) | |||
| 2 | Ockendon | David Potter (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | Sue Shinnick (Lab) | Andrew Jefferies (Con) | |||
| 3 | Belhus | Angela Lawrence (Con)[lower-alpha 2] | Mike Fletcher (Lab) | Chris Baker (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | |||
| 4 | West Thurrock and South Stifford | Oliver Gerrish (Lab) | Qaisar Abbas (Lab) | Victoria Holloway (Lab) | |||
| 5 | South Chafford | Suzanne MacPherson (Con) | Abbie Akinbohun (Lab) | N/A | |||
| 6 | Chafford and North Stifford | Garry Hague (Con) | N/A | Mark Coxshall (Con) | |||
| 7 | Grays Riverside | Tony Fish (Lab) | Martin Kerin (Lab) | Jane Pothecary (Lab) | |||
| 8 | Grays Thurrock | John Kent (Lab) | Lynn Worrall (Lab) | Cathy Kent (Lab) | |||
| 9 | Stifford Clays | N/A | Elizabeth Rigby (Con) | Jennifer Smith (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | |||
| 10 | Little Thurrock Blackshots | Jocelyn Redsell (Con) | Ben Maney (Con) | N/A | |||
| 11 | Little Thurrock Rectory | N/A | Rob Gledhill (Con) | Tom Kelly (Con) | |||
| 12 | Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park | N/A | Bukky Okunade (Lab) | Allen Mayes (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | |||
| 13 | Tilbury St. Chads | John Allen (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | Steve Liddiard (Lab) | N/A | |||
| 14 | Chadwell St. Mary | Gerard Rice (Lab) | Barbara Rice (Lab) | Daniel Chukwu (Lab) | |||
| 15 | East Tilbury | Sue Sammons (Con)[lower-alpha 2] | N/A | Fraser Massey (Ind) | |||
| 16 | Stanford-Le-Hope West | Terry Piccolo (Con) | N/A | Shane Hebb (Con) | |||
| 17 | Corringham and Fobbing | Aaron Watkins (Con) | N/A | Deborah Huelin (Con) | |||
| 18 | Stanford East and Corringham Town | Jack Duffin (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | Alex Anderson (Con) | Shane Ralph (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | |||
| 19 | The Homesteads | Gary Collins (Con) | James Halden (Con) | Gary Byrne (TI)[lower-alpha 1] | |||
| 20 | Orsett | Susan Little (Con) | Barry Johnson (Con) | N/A | |||
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
- 2019/20 — Terry Piccolo
See also
Thurrock, the area with borough status which this council administers.
References
- The Thurrock Independents group was formed by councillors who were originally elected as UKIP, but later left the party. Tim Aker was re-elected as a Thurrock Independent in the 2018 local elections.
- Angela Lawrence and Sue Sammons were originally elected as UKIP, but left the party to form the Thurrock Independents alongside the rest of their group members. They later joined the Conservative Party.
- "Thurrock Council - BBC News" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- "Thurrock". BBC News Online. 19 April 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
- "Thurrock's 17 UKIP councillors all resign from party". BBC News Online. 26 January 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
- "Committees, meetings and minutes - Thurrock Council". www.thurrock.gov.uk.
- "Wards and polling stations". www.thurrock.gov.uk. Thurrock Council. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
- https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/sites/default/files/assets/documents/schedule-of-local-elections-v06.pdf
- "Mayor of Thurrock 2017-18". www.facebook.com.
