DESPITE an optimistic view by a member of Thurrock Council's Environmental Protection Team and the hopes of a local ward councillor, it could be some time yet before the troublesome derelict former Calcutta Club in Tilbury is demolished.

On Boxing Day, and for the second time this year, firefighters attended a blaze at the building on Calcutta Road after intruders broke in and started a fire.

Six teams of firefighters tackled the incident, in difficult, dark conditions and the immediate fear of the crews when their work was completed and as they called in contractors to board up access points once again, that the building will remain accessible and a danger.

In May this year the building was also found to have housed a cannabis factory.

Local councillor Steve Liddiard believes the best thing that can happen in the short term is the building be demolished and he has called on Thurrock Council to support a planning application submitted in June 2021 on behalf of the site's owner, Dermot McGuinness.

Mr McGuinness, who runs the The Fleet Bar and Restaurant in Purfleet, and his architects submitted an outline application to build 36 flats on the site. Full details of the scheme have yet to be decided and it is planned to submitted a full application once outline permission has been granted. The priority has been to get the site demolished.

However, prevarication from the council appears to have delayed the process and, 18 months, on the application has not been determined – with a senior Thurrock council officer expressing his concerns of the detail of the project!

Cllr Liddiard believes it's time to stop talking and start acting. With two fires already having happened, both possibly started by children and firefighters having to put themselves at risk to go into the dangerous building, he thinks something must be done before there is a serious injury or possibly a fatality.

He told Nub News: "It's time this building was demolished and made safe. That must happen soon."

He has also not been too impressed by assurances from the council's public protection team and shared a message he received earlier this month from an officer who said: "Regarding the Calcutta Club I can advise that I am in regular contact with the current owner of the land to make sure it is secured against unauthorised access.

"I am pleased to say that as far as I'm aware, a lot of the issues you have mentioned are historic, and now the club is just occasionally broken into by youths.

The derelict building.

"Both I and the land owner regularly check the site to see if it's compromised, and so far he has been very receptive to working with us and making repairs in a timely manner.

"As it stands, I believe planning permission is in the final stages of being accepted. It's likely the case that, once in motion, the demolition of the site will resolve the current problems."

But whether the demolition will happen soon is a moot point. A detailed objection to the application has been made by the council's Place and Infrastructure manager Paul Sallin.

He says the run down state of the building at present is no reason to accept a scheme which he doesn't believe is of high enough quality.

Mr Sallin says: "Redevelopment represents an excellent opportunity to support the regeneration of the town centre, though the site's current rundown state shouldn't lesson the need for a high quality scheme as required by national and local policy. Indeed, the town centre's regeneration desperately needs such high quality schemes.

"In this respect, based on the information submitted, the current scheme does not convince that the lack of active town centre use would be appropriate, nor that the proposed density could achieved while meeting recognised design policy and guidance. "Problems relate to the perceived lack of active town centre uses at ground floor, car parking, height and massing and private amenity space, i.e. all things key to determining whether the application is acceptable in outline form (with all matters reserved). Therefore, I cannot support the scheme until suitable improvements are made.

Mr Sallins' objections are detailed on this link.