PLANS for a new super council across south Essex run by an elected mayor have been welcomed by Thurrock Tories - but the scheme finds less favour elsewhere.

As revealed on Thurrock Nub News last week a scheme has been envisaged to link authorities along the north Thames riverside - including Brentwood - that would take control of major planning decisions and regeneration projects.

This week the scheme was detailed to Thurrock Council cabinet members and local Tory leader Cllr Rob Gledhill, who chairs the think-tank that came up with the idea - said the combined authority would give the region greater power to get investment.

He said: "Everything does need to change and we need that big voice, we can't just be Thurrock saying can we have this money, we need the voice of six local authorities, 800,000 people, saying we need to be able to do this to improve the ability for our resident to earn, to learn and for the Government to gain the tax money it needs to keep this great nation moving forward."

His colleague Cllr James Halden said: "Some of the problems we need to address have been problems for decades, so the belief that just staying as we are will fix this problem is an absolute fantasy.

"Clearly we need to do something different. This is a really positive first step.

"As we go into a severe recession that is going to affect this country for years and years to come, think about care leavers, learning disabled adults – we need to be creating jobs, we need to be creating skills.

"For those people they don't care if your designation is unitary of district or county.

"They want to see cooperation to tackle these problems and for us to work together to create infrastructure to grow the skills, to grow the jobs that are going to positively impact their lives."

Mr Gledhill stressed that no decision has been made regarding whether there would be an elected mayor or what kind of combined authority would be created, as this depends on negotiations with the Government.

However, a council document produced ahead of the negotiations claim the change could mean a boost economic development through the creation of 100,000 jobs, more than 96,000 homes, and a raft of infrastructure improvements to public transport, education and health.

While the plan has gained support from the council's cabinet and Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price, it has faced strong criticism elsewhere.

Southend West MP, Sir David Amess, told the House of Commons that the handling of the plans had been "disgraceful" as he had not been informed.

Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, has also called it a "farce" and a "white elephant".

Furthermore, Southend Council's deputy leader, independent councillor Ron Woodley called the ideas "outlandish" and compared them to a "dissertation from a university graduate".

He said at a Southend's cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon, that it is "full of promises but has no depth".

Call for investigation

And Southend independent councillor Keith Evans called for an investigation into why the plans had been put together in secret and told council leader Ian Gilbert that Southend is "not Russia or China".

Cllr Evans further pressured the council leader over why meetings between council leaders had not been recorded and had no minutes that are publicly available.

Cllr Gilbert admitted the meetings should not be taking place with such a high degree of secrecy but claimed he "inherited" the system when he became council leader.

He continued: "I never had any intention of hiding matters and some members have mentioned honesty, I hope members know I have never done anything dishonest in this role, nor would I.

"This is the first step of negotiation, it is not an end point. The council will have the chance to vote on any settlement with the Government."

He added: "In hindsight, perhaps it was unfortunate that when a memorandum of understanding was signed it was decided that the status of meetings were set to private."

Southend Labour councillor Charles Willis said: "Cllr Gilbert has said he doesn't know where the end point will be for this but the rest of the council doesn't know the start point.

"There is a total lack of information about what is being negotiated and by who."

Cllr Gilbert was also unable to tell members how much investment council leaders expect to get as the Government "does not want figures in the public domain".

Southend is now to hold a full council meeting just to debate the proposals.