THE green future of the borough is guaranteed thanks to the 'astounding efforts' of members of Thurrock Council's environment teams.

That was the upbeat message contained in the annual report by the portfolio holder for the environment at last night's (Wednesday, 27 January) meeting of the full council.

Addressing colleagues in the virtual meeting, Cllr Aaron Watkins said the borough continues to meet targets and it plans to 'continue building a greener, cleaner and more active community'.

Cabinet Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure Cllr Watkins outlined in his fourth annual report the aims for the next 12 months, while also "acknowledging the astounding efforts made by staff despite the hurdles of the past year."

Cllr Watkins said: "This year has been hard for everyone, but the work the environment team have done has been fantastic, and I thank every one of them for their continued hard work.

"The past year has been met with multiple challenges as a result of Covid-19, and while we collectively fight this, we still have some of these challenges. But the service will continue to strive forward and deliver an excellent service for our residents.

"The efforts of the clean and green teams has resulted in the improvement of our Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) score, where Thurrock can be seen out-performing both London and national benchmarks.

"In addition, work on the tree planting and tree maintenance strategies will continue, which goes hand-in-hand with our new active place strategy. Part of this strategy aims to continue improving outdoor spaces and parks, providing residents with better sports and leisure conditions.

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"2021 will continue to bring challenges, but as we have always done, we will meet them head on."

Cllr Watkins comments will hopefully strike a chord in his own ward of Corringham, where an appeal has just been made for more support for the town's park.

And he was also challenged about and agreed to throw his weight behind a campaign to ensure young footballers in the local community keep their threatened pitches.

Last year the council took to social media to praise the work of its environmental teas. Click here to see story.