A GOVERNMENT minister had a chance to see how Thurrock is changing when she visited on Friday (12 December) morning.
Baroness Kramer, Minister of State for Transport, was visiting the High House Production Park in Purfleet where a meeting of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership – involving Thurrock, Medway, Southend, Kent, East Sussex and Essex – was being held.
After speaking at the meeting, the baroness was taken on a whistle-stop tour of the borough which she had requested.
Accompanied by Thurrock council chief executive Graham Farrant and others – including Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price – she was shown the plans for Purfleet including its massive television and film studio complex, new town, shops, and railway station, and 3,000 homes; Lakeside and the London Gateway port.
Mr Farrant said: “There is so much going on in Thurrock we weren’t able to show Baroness Kramer everything, but we travelled from Purfleet to London Gateway along the A13 and we had a chance to explain the importance of the proposals to widen the road directly to the transport minister in order to enable economic growth.
“After seeing the port itself – and a ship just three metres shorter than the longest in the world berthed there – she understood the need for more capacity on our main roads.
“We also stopped at Lakeside where I was able to explain our plans to turn it into what will effectively become a town centre, and again the importance of transport links came through in the discussions as we came down the A1306 and to Junction 31 of the motorway.
“And then we were back at Purfleet and describing the exciting plans we have for the town.”
