A THURROCK councillor has told of his continuing frustration with bureaucracy as he battles to improve the quality of life in his ward.

Cllr Mike Fletcher was elected in South Ockendon's Belhus ward in May 2018 and is recognised as an active and community-engaged councillor who, through he represents Labour, works in the interest of all residents. He serves on a number of committees and public engagement organisations.

However, as he continues to battle on a number of fronts on matters that are in the interests of those residents, he says it is becoming increasingly difficult to get the democratic traction he believes councillors should get within the local authority.

In particular he is finding it increasingly frustrating to get enforcement action on the HGV infringements that are a constant blight on life in South Ockendon – with hauliers regularly breaching weight limits, route restrictions and parking illegally and in some instances causing significant damage to the local environment.

Cllr Fletcher told Thurrock Nub News: "We've had issues with HGVs for a long time now and I've been raising it with the council for the last couple of years.

"I've asked for more/more visible signs indicating both the weight limit and the waiting restrictions; I've asked them to get the enforcement teams out more frequently (although, to be fair, they've showed me that they've issued some 30 tickets in the last six months of 2019) and to get in touch with local haulage firms to make sure they can't say, 'We didn't know'.

"We've had little positive response that really gets to the heart of the problem and offers solutions so far.

"And across other subjects, it is beginning to get to be unnecessarily painstaking to get things done.

"I was elected in 2018 and the first two bits of case work I remember picking up, one of which was a homelessness case, only finally got resolved in the last couple of months. There are similar frustrations in other cases and when I talk about being flexible and working with people rather than dogma they just say 'Rules are rules.'

"I don't believe council officers actually want to mess with people, but everything is an administration problem not a people problem, and it is a nightmare trying to get them to depart from their interpretation of the process.

"I had a situation last year where a resident was trying to prove she has been a resident for over 30 years, most of it as a council tenant, and they refused her - because their records don't go that far back! We had to go to the land registry to persuade them!

"I don't believe there is anything deliberate but there is undoubtedly an inability within this council to deal flexibly with the people rather than the processes."