News in Thurrock

HIGH-ranking officials at Thurrock Council have belittled claims by workers at its Oliver Close depot that they have been abandoned to their fate as Covid-19 runs rife.

Thurrock Nub News has been contacted by whistle-blowing workers at the site, where refuse, highways and other environmental teams – as well as a fleet engineering team - are based. And their claims that they are being badly treated by a council that wants to cover up its health and safety inadequacies have been backed up by a tearful wife who told us her husband is forced to put his family at risk after being told his job is on the line if he doesn't turn up for work.

MANAGERS of health care and emergency services across Essex have pleaded with the government to pour more resource into the region to combat the pressures it is under because of Covid-19.

As exclusively reported on Thurrock Nub News last night (Tuesday, 29 December) hospitals across the region stand on the brink of declaring a black alert - an effective closure of their doors with patients in care being discharged in some instances to make space for more seriously ill patients

A FOX with its head stuck in a watering can is the latest animal to be saved by the Essex Wildlife Hospital at Orsett - though the frightened animal showed its gratitude by "several wall of death laps" as it left a 'trail of destruction'.

The distressed animal was taken to the hospital by a milkwoman on her morning round on Monday (28 December) who had discovered it.

REPORTS circulating this evening (Tuesday, 29 December) suggest that hospitals in coronavirus-stricken Essex, including Basildon & Thurrock Hospital, will be declared 'full' and new patients will not be accepted.

It is suggested the deadline could be as soon as tomorrow morning – though it is not clear what alternatives will be in place.

A GRAYS man was due to appear in court today (Tuesday, 29 December) after being tracked down by Essex Police.

On Christmas Eve the force issued a plea for information about the whereabouts of Joshua Wiggins who they wanted to speak to in connection with burglaries in Chafford Hundred and Stanford-le-Hope.

THE Royal Mail has expressed its gratitude to residents in Grays who have been affected by delays to post delivery services in the pre and post Christmas rush.

Speculation has been rife on social media in many6 Grays communities about problems with the local delivery service in the west of the borough and now Royal Mail has confirmed the adverse impact of a significant rise in the amount of mail and parcels to be sorted allied to the impact of Covid-19 which has taken toll on local workers.

FIREFIGHTERS from Grays responded to an emergency at a petrol station in the town today.

Two crews were deployed to the Morrisons petrol station in London Road, Grays, at 10.32am after an alarm was raised about a gas leak. The crews discovered a canister emitting propane.

WORKERS at a logistics company in Thurrock had a surprise when they discovered six geckos had stowed away in a storage container from overseas.

RSPCA inspector Prisca Giddens was called to a logistics company in Stanford-le-Hope after workers opened a container that had come in from abroad to find a number of geckos darting around inside.

THE rising tide of Covid-19 patients requiring hospital treatment has prompted bosses at Basildon & Thurrock Hospital to put out an emergency call to staff to abandon their holiday and return to work.

The Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust, which runs the hospital, have sent an urgent plea to staff not at work and have asked doctors and nurses on annual leave to return, due to an "increasingly difficult situation" that the hospital is facing.

POLICE have confirmed that a man died in last evening's collision that caused the closure of the A128 for around six hours.

The crash involving a motorbike and a car on the A128 at Bulphan happened near to Ye Old Plough House at around 6pm yesterday (Monday, 28 December).