THURROCK Council has announced its scheduled monthly planning meeting which was due to take place on Thursday, 6 January has been called off.

No reason has been given officially though the committee's vice chairman says he understands it is because there is 'insufficient business'.

Reporting that news that the meeting has been cancelled yesterday (Tuesday, 4 January) vice-chairman Cllr Steve Liddiard told Nub News: "I wasn't consulted and was also under the impression that there was a backlog of business. I was surprised to hear there was insufficient business."

Nub News also understands that the committee chair, Cllr Tom Kelly, was keen to press ahead with a meeting - given that several of the meetings in the closing stages of 2021 ran several hours long and in some meetings members of the public and applicants who had waited hours for decisions to be made were told that the meeting was to end without considering their items.

However, a brief note on the council's calendar of meetings says: "This meeting has been cancelled in consultation with the Chair, Planning Committee". Cllr Kelly has been asked to comment by Nub News but has not done so.

Meetings of the planning committee had been moved to the South Essex College campus following a flood in the civic offices in September - which led to all council public meetings in the latter third of the year being held at a variety of local venues.

The next meeting of the planning committee is scheduled for Thursday, 10 February, meaning anyone hoping to get their application heard by the committee will now have to wait another five weeks. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in the council chamber in the council's new extension building, which is scheduled to be open for business by the end of January.