THE Boundary Commission has released its final recommendations for change to Thurrock’s electoral wards – and has acceded to local requests to include local place names including Belhus and Homesteads in ward titles. Tilbury will also retain its Riverside and St Chads place names reports Thurrock Nub News.
Originally the local names were planned to be dropped by the commission in favour of more generic names, but after final consultation and requests from local councillors, some wards retain longer, more specific names.
That concession has been welcomed, with Homesteads councillor Gary Byrne among those who are appreciative.
Cllr Byrne ran a local campaign urging residents to call for the Homesteads name to be retained and he said this morning (Tuesday, 3 December): “I am pleased to see that someone, somewhere listens to local councillors’ opinions expressed on behalf of residents.
“I am pleased that the identity of the Homesteads will be retained, it is important to the people here and we have a particularly strong community affinity with our roots and local history.”
The recommendation to rename wards in Ockendon and Belhus as Ockendon North and Ockendon South & North Stifford wards has also been dropped.
The commission says: “The submissions from the Council, the Conservatives and Labour were opposed to our recommended ward names and instead argued for the retention of ‘Ockendon’ and ‘Belhus’, respectively.
“This was supported by councillors Victoria Holloway, Mark Hurrell and Ryan Polston, as well as two residents.
“In particular it was argued that the presence of North Ockendon in the adjoining local authority could cause confusion.
“It was also argued that, contrary to the submission on which we based our draft recommendations, the name ‘Belhus’ is locally recognised.”
The names Riverside and St Chads will continue to be a part of the town’s two wards rather than just Tilbury North and South.
One proposed change that the commission has rejected, was a call by councillors to name Aveley and Uplands, ‘Aveley and Kenningtons’, a proposal backed by Aveley & Uplands councillors Jacqui Maney, Srikanth Panjala and Catherine Sisterton, but the commission says it will just use the generic term ‘Aveley’ for the ward.
The commission has also accepted some border changed by differing submissions from the council’s Conservative and Labout groups in the Grays and Little Thurrock Rectory wards.
In another concession the commission has added the word ‘Hundred’ to wards previously described as just Chafford.
One of the significant changes adopted by the commission is the moving of the village of North Stifford into what is currently Stifford Clays ward – and the ward will now be know as Stifford.
And a new ward will be created for Purfleet-on-Thames.
The final recommendations of the commission will now be put before Parliament and it is hoped that the new wards – and some new polling station locations – will be in place for the full round of local elections in Thurrock in May, called by the government as part of its intervention strategy after the council’s financial collapse.
The number of councillors, 49, will remain the same but allocations to wards in association with boundary line changes, will be implemented.
The full final recommendations of the commission, ward-by-ward, and its reasoning, can be found below.
