Thurrock Nub News Editorial opinion:

by editor Neil Speight.

IN 2016 Thurrock Conservatives won control of the borough council on the back of a manifesto that put making the borough a 'cleaner and greener' place right at the top of the civic agenda.

The Conservative group rolled out pledges that they would not shirk the responsibility of making sure that every ward in the borough would be kept in a smart, safer condition and that it was recognised that residents put their local environment high on the list of priorities.

Six years later, despite council leader Rob Gledhill rolling out a monthly raft of statistics detailing every pothole filled, blade of grass cut and a list of bizarre comparisons and obscure metaphors, the reality is the place is as scruffy as ever.

And it was extremely disingenuous on Friday when the council and the Conservatives' propaganda teams rolled out action in Flint Street as a flagship moment. It smacked not of a commitment to greener, cleaner ideals but a piece of political flagwaving in backyard of the council's new communities portfolio. Of course, I may be too cynical in my view and it could be a new dawn.

But somehow I doubt it.

Over recent years I have refered many flytipping stories to the council, I have personally reported problems and I have filmed and taken pictures at blighted areas. The outcome from the council in real terms? Very little! Its enforcement team has regularly failed to act.

Ask the local scouting fraternity what they think about the council's total failure to do anything practical about huge mounds of rotting bales of commercial rubbish next to the Cherrywood scout site. The bales of rubbish have been there for many years and were subject to an enforcement notice to remove them issued by the council several years ago. But that proved to be no more than hollow words and the bales continue to rot away into the local environment.

And in recent times there has been a mounting litany of complaints about the state of local public open spaces. In April we featured the shocking state of car parking areas in Tilbury.

Residents in Corringham are also up in arms over the state of streets and paths which are weed-strewn and unkempt. And despite his best efforts to placate local concerns, ward councillor Shane Ralph has found himself (and his party) the butt of much local criticism. Speaking of butts - the council's obession with fining people large sums for dropping cigarette butts in public spaces has been widely condemned as unfair, impractical and bullying. But old folk dropping tabs are an easy target!

And wholesale breaches of planning permission that have seen irreversible damge to the environment have barely caused a ripple on the council's conscience.

Today (Saturday, 9 July) Thurrock Labour group leader Cllr John Kent expressed his concerns about the council's failure to turn words into action but he hoped things might yet improve and he said if the Flint Street initiative is a real gamechanger, he would applaud wholeheartedly.

After speaking to Cllr Kent this morning I nipped over to Tilbury to check out reports that flowers had been stolen from the town's civic memorial. It proved something of a non-story, but what I did see was a shameful lack of pride in the appearance of the civic buildings and their garden frontages. Even the memorial was blighted by weeds.

It summed up what I can only describe as a lack of civic pride. The administration of Thurrock Council talks the 'greener, cleaner' talk but that's not translated into action.

The vibe is beginning to grow that it's not the councillors, it's a lack of commitment from the officer cohort to implement strategy. Not particularly surprising when so many senior officers don't live in Thurrock, and these days find it hard enough to tear themselves away from a Zoom screen and make the effort to actually visit the borough.

If that's the case, then equal shame on Cllr Gledhill and his team. The officers work for them and the borough. We residents pay the wages. And for our buck, we are not getting a lot of bang at the moment.

I was going to say it's time to wake up and smell the daisies, but in real terms its more a case of smelling rotting garbage and nettles.

It's simply not good enough and it's time that this administration literally started to weed out the problems.