GRAYS Athletic fans have been celebrating after winning a planning application battle that moves them nearer to having a home they can call their own.

A joint application by the club and car dealers Group One Automotive is to turn swathes of the existing Ship Lane football complex, formerly the home of Thurrock FC, into a pre-delivery car preparation plant.

As part of the deal, Grays get the existing stadioum for free! It has been a long-running and controversial process and three times previously an application has been rejected or thrown out without consideration.

This time Grays stuck their name on the application and mounted a local publicity account to counter local, Aveley-based opposition.

And it worked. At last night's planning committee (Thursday, 13 July) councillors voted 3-3 on a recommendation by officers to refuse the application. Three, Cllrs Paul Arnold, Lee Watson and Sue Shinnick voted to refuse, while three, committee chair Cllr Tom Kelly, his deputy Cllr Georgette Polley and Cllr Adam Carter voted for it.

Cllr Arnold spoke passionately about the impact on the green belt and said it was unconscionable to develop the site, referring to the amount of wildlife on it. Cllrs Shinnick and Watson echoed that argument.

However, Cllr Adam Carter, a recent draftee to planning, said it was a good scheme and of benefit to the Grays community - while Cllr Kelly has been a longstanding advocate of it.

Cllr Polley was the one who appeared to have a decisive change of heart. At a previous application she was set against it, saying: "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."

It went to Cllr Kelly's casting vote and – as someone who has supported the application throughout, he ruled in favour of overruling officers and the application was passed.

Ship Lane.

However, that is not the end of the matter. Under the council's rules, it now has to come back to another meeting, giving officers the chance to evaluate the decision and come up with their view on it.

But the principle of approval has now been established – moving near to Grays moving in. However, it is likely to take some time before it comes back to the planning committee and it will also have to pass muster in a referral to the Secretary of State because it is in the green belt.

And there is a further issue because the plan for Ship Lane is intrinsically linked to an application for replacement sports pitches to be created at Belhus. That is a separate application but due to a legal hitch it was discovered sufficient notice had not been given to existing owners and users of the land, Impulse Leisure, so the application has had to be deferred to a later meeting.

Our video features comments by the councillors on the application and the outcome of the vote.

The full debate and the vote can also be viewed in full via this link.