Has council granted retrospective permission to itself after acting outside planning conditions?

THURROCK Council has just given itself permission to place advertisements on the hoardings outside the new civic office extension in Grays - despite having had the fencing decorated for weeks.

Time lapse photography of the site on the council's own website shows the site has been decorated with images and information for months.

Yet it was only in the past few days that the council planning department has given permission.

The green light was given to the application which asked for permission to erect hoarding around council offices building site including advertisements showing 3D visualisations of the new council office and text.