PLANNING councillors have thrown out an application to build a car preparation plant adjacent to the defunct Thurrock FC stadium at Ship Lane in West Thurrock – and ended hopes of Grays Athletic FC that they might be able to move in and call the stadium their new home.

The decision came after more than two hours of questions and debate at tonight's (Thursday, 19 August) meeting of Thurrock council's planning committee when just two councillors, the Tory chair of the committee Cllr Tom Kelly and his colleague and deputy Mayor Cllr James Halden supported the bid.

Seven other members of the committee, including other Conservatives, voted against the scheme.

It now seems probable that the applicants, Group1Automotive, may decide to come back to the council with a new plan to demolish the stadium and build their car preparation plant on its footprint – a threat that was recognised during the debate but did not convince a majority of councillors to forego their green belt commitment.

The final decision met with applause from Aveley residents who attended the meeting – but will no doubt cause further despair for supporters of Grays Athletic, which had declared its interest in taking over the stadium. Last week they saw hopes of a new stadium at Blackshots also dashed with the submission of a new school application.

Planning officer Matthew Gallagher gave members a detailed breakdown of the an initial application was thrown out

He briefed councillors on the new plan which he and colleagues were recommending for refusal. He alerted councillors to the suggestion that the company might have a 'fallback position' by coming back to the committee with a plan to build on the site of the existing football stadium which effectively is a brownfield site.

However, he stressed that the material planning considerations regarding the release of green belt outweighed all the positive aspects of the application.

Cllr Sue Little expressed her concerns about the application and suggested that Group1Automotive ought to be looking for a site in the borough not in the green belt. She also felt that creating 30 jobs, which the applicants had put forward as a plus, would not make very positive impact on local unemployment figures.

During the first hour of debate the council's legal advisor and locum solicitor Caroline Robins interjected as councillors quizzed officers about issues including HGV movements through Avelely. She accused them of moving away from key issues and said that such matters were not within their planning remit.

She got short shrift from Cllr Mike Fletcher who said: "Councillors here represent the people of Thurrock, it is our responsibility to raise those questions. If we were not to ask the question about whether this would actually deal with a known situation, we would not be carrying out our responsibility to the people of Thurrock. You have to take account of all the issues."

Teresa Webster, chairman of Aveley and Kenningtons Community Forum addressed the meeting and was scathing about the application and said: "Residents in Aveley believe nothing has changed in this application.

"120 residents and the developers attended a public meeting in 2019, there was no support for a pre delivery inspection centre on our green belt. Traffic movement in Aveley has increased and Ship Lane in particular is already adversely affected by congestion.

"In the past couple of weeks there have been multiple incidents when Aveley became gridlocked and people found cars and lorries outside their doors as they tried to weave their way through. The pending thousands of vehicle movements will exasperate residents.

"There is a simple situation, it is for Thurrock Council to enforce, which would help the situation."

Mrs Webster then touched on health issues, saying: "In the busy months of March and September this will increase air pollution in an area already identified as having high levels.

"At a meeting in October 2019 Thurrock Council declared a climate emergency. The climate emergency statement says that climate should be embedded in all council activities, residents assume this includes planning permission and is greatly relevant to this application.

"We must acknowledge the application is on our green belt and the loss of our green belt will never be returned. This application affects all of the residents in the Aveley community who will have to live with the consequences of this every day."

Mrs Webster then also turned on Grays Athletic – which eventually ended in a stand-off with Cllr Kelly.

She said: "There was strong opposition in Aveley to Grays being the designated user of the stadium" and spoke against the club, prompting Cllr Kelly to say: "Why do you not want Grays at that stadium?"

She responded: "Can I just throw the question back? How does that benefit our local area? The majority of people who support Grays Athletic do not come from Aveley. Grays have 33 teams, we would have nothing for Aveley. Grays Athletic, it's in the name! It belongs in Grays - not Aveley."

Cllr Kelly said: "Grays currently play at Aveley's Parkside ground. If they moved from Parkside it would free up time for Aveley at Parkside. I am from Grays. I want Grays in Grays but we have to find a home for them."

Prompting the retort: "Grays are not homeless, they are ground sharing. They are not homeless, they are playing football."

Mr Julian Sutton, the agent for Group1Automotive said: "There is no objection to this application from Highways England or Thurrock Highways. Our car testing route avoids Aveley, it will be enshrined in a legal agreement with the council."

And he tackled the issues of pollution, saying: "We need capacity for longer term storage so we have more than 1,000 parking spaces but that it doesn't mean we will be using them all. On average there will be 200 vehicle movements, rising to 350 in March and September.

"A quarter of the cars processed from day one will be electric or hybrid. And that will only increase."

Speaking about who moves into the stadium, he added: "The football club and training pitches have been empty since 2018. We need your direction, should we give it to Grays Athletic or let local people decide. We will let democracy decide."

He summed up by saying: "We want to invest seven million pounds into this site. We are very serious about the fallback position. Yes it is a smaller scheme but it will not deliver the benefits that this does. If this committee is serious about stopping HGVs going into Aveley this is only dealt with by this application."

When councillors debated the issue, Cllr Kelly said: "I think this is potentially an opportunity and if we vote to reject, it's an opportunity that's lost. We can bring a derelict, defunct stadium back to life. We can bring huge benefit to Belhus.

"In terms of HGVs, realistically a bus lane and CCTV could solve the problem for Aveley and save the council money.

"We have £7 million here of investment from an American company. I get people's concerns but realistically electric cars are coming so I will be moving we support this appication. If it gets approved we can then see if it goes to Grays Athletic or the community."

Cllr Halden was similarly minded and said: "In terms of functionality of the green belt it's not going to stop the breakdown of a natural barrier. It's not a concrete jungle. I simply don't see an employment development on this land as particularly harmful.

"We know there's a problem with HGVs and this offers a solution. I have heard constant statements that we are going to solve this HGV problem in Aveley in my time as a councillor but 11 and a half years on that white horse has not ridden over the horizon.

"The fact that we have got an application in front of us that deals with the HGV problem for the people of Aveley is of tremendous benefit."

Non-voting member Steve Taylor said: "The bottom line is this is inappropriate use of the green belt. There might be some mitigation but in my view it's not sufficient.

"And the flooding issue has been completely ignored. What happens when the Mar Dyke floods, as it does every year.

"And as for HGV enforcement, the police just don't want to know! You have only got to go to North Stifford and look at the camera there."

Cllr Fletcher complemented Cllr Kelly on his summing up but said: "Your words were eloquently put but it's indicative of why this is so difficult to discuss. But there's a great elephant in the room that this is green belt that will be lost and can't be retrieved.

"And I am still not convinced this HGV thing will work. Whether it does anything for the existing clogging up of Ship Lane I just don't know.

"I would love to see Grays Athletic come back to Thurrock but I am not sure holding out that carrot of the pitch and clubhouse outweighs the indisputable fact this taking out a large chunk of greenbelt. The most clear material consideration here is that we will be losing a large chunk of the green belt and the factors that might outweigh that that don't particularly impress me. I can't back it."

Cllr Terry Piccolo said: "['m very much of the same opinion as Cllr Fletcher. We are not giving something to Belhus, it's something they have already got and does not have any relevance.

"We talk about restrictions in place to stop HGVs using Ship Lane. I live in Stanford-le-Hope. We have a 7.5 ton weight limit and on an hourly basis we have HGVs breaking that limit. At present there is no way the council can control the camera and protect HGV movements into Aveley.

"As such we have to consider this planning application on what is available the moment and at the present moment no one is going to stop[ HGVs going tonto Aveley.

"It's bad enough we have to release green belt for housing, but even worse to release it for industrial development. There are plenty of brownfield sites that could be available for this. I just cannot see a justification for this."

Cllr Gary Byrne chipped in, saying: "I agree with my colleagues. We have ward councillors objecting to this, The Forum are objecting to this. Residents are objecting to this.

"The worst thing about this company is their fallback position which is wrong on so many levels. It should carry no weight whatsoever.

Cllr Little concluded: "I have listened to all the debate and the last three councillors have totally sold me on not going with this, bearing in mind the health of the people of Aveley. The fact we are giving way to cars is not acceptable. We also have to listen to officers and they are against it."

Her view was shared by Cllr Lee Watson who said: "I am not going to support this planning application. If this is all going to be about the carrot of a bus lane, maybe the council could look at this ourselves. I am, against this.

Cllr Steve Liddiard also opposed the scheme, saying: "I do like all the sweeteners we have been offered here and there will be an advantage to Aveley but I really cannot support anything that means we lose our green belt so I will be supporting the officer's recommendations."

And Cllr Georgette Polley said: "The suggestion this in not manicured green belt doesn't count. We are ripping out the green lung through Thurrock and this area serves as a green belt to help mitigate some of the traffic pollution and air quality. So I think we get into dangerous territory when we say it's not effective green belt - it's doing what its meant to do. It's part of our green lung."

You can view the planning meeting via this link.