AFTER a process that has already taken around five years, Thurrock's leading councillors have come up with an idea about how to make a local plan happen - talk to residents!

The lack of an up-to-date local plan has been a significant problem in delivering developments across the borough - and has created the situation where random schemes have been approved despite local opposition and even objections from planners.

The matter was a talking point at a recent meeting iof the council's cabinet as leading councillors pondered how and where thousands of new homes will be built across the borough and how the community, the local economy and jobs will shape up over the next two decades.

They were discusing a report from Cllr Mark Coxshall, the authority's deputy leader and cabinet member for regeneration and external affairs. It focussed on the creation of a 'Statement of Community Involvement'.

The full statement can be read via this link.

Councillors discussed consulting residents on planning matters, which will include making it easier for people to access consultations. They approved a recommendation that the Statement of Community Involvement will itself be subject to consultation. Residents' views on developments will then be fed into the local plan.

Cllr Coxshall said: "We should listen to local constituents and try and get a much local engagement as we can. This is not the council's plan, this is the residents' plan.

"It is critical to us in how we move forward in our local plan. If there are any issues coming out we can make adjustments and move forward at pace."

Shane Hebb, councillor responsible for transformation and performance, said a priority of the local plan must be to ensure enough homes for young people.

He said: "I think this is incredibly important because you would be hard pushed to find any family across this borough who doesn't have view on their children being able to live local to them as they grow up.

"Everyone recognises the need to build houses. We need them in the right way but part of doing is by having the conversation. It gives residents a good, sound opportunity to make their feelings known."

Cllr Coxshall added: "Let's look at the borough. It's an extremely young borough. I've lost count of how many new schools we have had. What we've got to do now with the local plan is build homes for those kids coming out of school.

"There's homes needed for these children now. We've got the youngest population in the region that means there is a need for our young people. We built the schools now we've got to build homes for them."

Critics of the council might say that the authority has a propensity for reinventing the wheel. And certainly there was little new in what councillors discussed last week - in fact two consultations are currently running.

One is about an 'infrastructure requirement list. The other is directly linked to the local plan and is called 'Thurrock Your Place, Your Voice'. While that has closed online, the council is planning roadshows to promote it around the borough this year. It introduced the phrase BIMBY, which stands for 'Beauty in my Back Yard' to Thurrock residents.

These follow on from a Consultation on the Local Plan - Issues and Options (Stage 1) that took place between 26 February and 11 April 2016.

That was followed two years later by a stage two consultation that ran from December 2018 to March 2019.

A 'Backing Thurrock' strategic consultation then took place in 2021.

You can watch the cabinet meeting via this link.