ONE of the great fundraisers and citizens of the borough, Liz Hosford celebrated twenty years since she had her kidney transplant. A new health centre opened in Grays.
Another blogger joined our team. Heidi Goodsell, who although from Grays had emigrated to San Antonio in Texas. Heidi gave us the lowdown on life in the lone star.
The Royal Opera continued their good work in the borough. The Thurrock Drama Festival was once again excellent with the Lightnin’ Drama group quite brilliant while rumours of a rival panto coming to the borough started to circulate.
Olympic hopeful, Chadwell boxer Nina Smith continued to impress as she won her bouts and went abroad to train with the GB team. Badminton veteran Carlton Darrell received an MBE.
£52 million worth of cuts to the health service were announced.
Thurrock Cycle Marathon was once again great.
The Pupil Referral Unit received a damning Ofsted report.
On the one hand we continued to showcase musical talent in the borough but cuts meant that the studio at Youth and Connexions had limited hours.
Once a month, we reported from the youth courts. One of the choice conversations went like this.
Judge: This is the third theft in three months. What do you hope to do when you leave school?
Defendant: I was thinking about becoming a legal secretary……………
A new Chief Executive for Thurrock Council, Graham Farrant was appointed in the same week that the Collison report on the conduct and behaviour of the Thurrock Council Planning Committee was published.
Amongst the criticisms, questions, inferences and recommendations were:
1. “An absence of adequate explanation of decisions inevitably raises questions about the motives of those councillors.”
2. “The fact that the Local Development Framework Working Group was adopting proposals without adequate stated justification left the process failing a test of transparency and open to all manner of speculation as to the basis of those proposals.”
3.”Where Committee decisions are made contrary to officer recommendations which are based on policy, and those decisions are made without adequate explanation, interested observers may conclude that some councillors are working to alternative unstated agendas.
4.”It is essential that councillors adopt practices that leave them above suspicion of receiving inappropriate influence.”
5.”Councillors appear to be receiving correspondence relevant to the determination of planning applications and LDF preparation but not declaring this.
6. “The style of the Chair is not always conducive to good working relationships between him and officers with reference made to officers being talked down and not able to offer advice at meetings.
Below is a selection from the Thurrock Drama Festival.
