The British Amateur Drama Festival came to Thurrock and produced a week of outstanding theatre (including a group from Luxembourg).
Sometimes we went tabloid: “Tilbury Hooker Caught In Benefit Fraud “Sting” Spared Jail” but most of the time we enjoyed the delights of a Thurrock summer filming the model boat club or summer fetes…………and then along came the “Chaffrica” controversy where comments made on Facebook by Chafford Hundred councillor, Neil Rockcliffe led to his suspension and subsequent decision to quit as a councillor come next May. Funnily enough, the next story we ran was the fine imposed on the former landlord of a Corringham pub for using illegal Albanian decoders to show live premier league football. That pub was the Catcracker……..
Infact, the month of August is supposed to be a quiet one politically but as we know, Thurrock operates in some form of parallel universe. So, we had Aveley councillor John Cowell claiming he was being blackmailed to stay away from planning matters to do with lorry parks. A secret film was produced which appeared to show the councillor saying that “they” were looking at a way of “by-passing” planning permission. The whole matter centred on the Titan Lorry Park on Oliver Road, West Thurrock. It appeared that the park did not have planning permission. The whole issue sparked a number of news stories and debates. The story still has a long way to run.
There was a tornado in Corringham! and there was another storm as traffic wardens were spotted ticketing cars at 2am in Stanford-le-Hope.
Miraculously, Grays Athletic rose from the ashes and made it to the first game of the season in the Ryman Div One North.
Thurrock Tories continued to implode as they were set to expel three former Tory Mayors. Meanwhile, down in Tilbury, the police were making arrests at the altar due to suspected sham marriages.
