THE FORMER mayor of Thurrock Council, cllr Yash Gupta is about to celebrate his 80th birthday.
Cllr Gupta has been a considerable force in the council chamber for the last nineteen years but that was just after he retired as a senior educational psychologist.
Yash Gupta has lived a remarkable life and is (in our opinion) the embodiment of dignity, civic pride and aspiration.
We asked Yash to describe his life after he came to Thurrock in 1974.
Cllr Gupta said: "I came to Thurrock in August, 1974, nearly forty one years ago after my appointment as an Educational Psychologist by the Essex County Council.
In January 1977 I was promoted to the post of Senior Educational Psychologist, in charge of delivering psychological services in South West Essex which included the districts of Thurrock and Basildon.
During my 22 years service as a psychologist I would have helped nearly six to eight thousand children, their parents and teachers.
I thoroughly enjoyed my job but decided to retire in August, 1995 from my full time job. I continued working for another five years as part time psychologist proving service to local colleges in Thurrock and Basildon.
After my retirement in 1995 I joined the local Labour party and was elected councillor in May 1996 , first councillor from the local BME community.
The main purpose of my joining the local politics was to continue serving the local communities and providing support to those residents who did not have any say in local decision making. As councillor I worked hard for promoting the equality agenda in the Council and amongst other statutory bodies like the Primary Care Trust and the Thurrock Development Corporation where I served as a member of the Board of Governors.
I think I worked hard to promote the interests of local voluntary, community and faith sectors and helped to create better relations between these organisations and the Council.
I used all my spare time in strengthening the local voluntary sector by working with other colleagues on the boards of eight local voluntary, community and faith organisations.
I have always championed the cause of Older People’s rights and have been instrumental in setting up older people’s parliament which meets regularly in the Council chamber for the last six years. I visit regularly five older people’s complexes in my Grays Thurrock Ward and listen any grievances from the residents and try to sort these out with the help of council officers.
As a Councillor for nearly 20 years I have dealt with nearly 6,000 local residents and helped them to sort out their problems. I write my monthly reports for my constituents to read and question me about my work as a councillor. These are published on my blog; http//cllryashgupta.wordpress.com/.
You will note that I have been elected as a Councillor seven times by these constituents. In the last election in May 2012 I won this seat with a majority of 748 votes; I had 1073 votes against the Conservative 325 and UKIP 242; NF 153 and Lib Dem 82.
After completing my 20 years tenure as a Councillor I will be retiring from the Council in May, 2016.
On my 80th Birthday I would like to thank every resident in Thurrock for their acceptance for me and my family as we were first generation immigrants.
My special thanks are to all those residents in the Grays Thurrock Ward who continued to support me during all these seven elections which I contested.
Thank you for all your support and help.
Yash Gupta
