News in Thurrock

YOUNGSTERS in Thurrock are being given the chance to join a borough-wide choir.

Thurrock Junior Choir is holding a workshop for children aged eight to 11 who enjoy singing.

GRANGEWATERS Outdoor Education Centre will play host to a 'Festive Fun Day' later this month.

Among the activities planned at the Thurrock Council centre on Saturday, 14 December are abseiling, archery, canoe rafting, crafts and camp fires.

A BUDDING chef has been selected to represent the borough in the next stage of a top competition.

The Rotary Club of Grays Thurrock in Partnership with the South Essex College (SEC) ran the Young Chef competition at the South Essex College campus in Grays.

THE demise of a long-running Thurrock charity remains shrouded in mystery – with many of its supporters and former volunteers saying they have been left with a sour taste about the way it was wound up.

Thurrock & District Cerebral Palsy Society, whose patron is celebrity Phill Jupitas, was established in 1964 by a group of parents with children with cerebral palsy to give each other mutual support while all coming to terms with the same problem.

RSPCA inspectors had to deal with a slippery customer when an uninvited guest arrived at a Thurrock freight firm.

"The staff weren't sure if the snake was dangerous or not but our staff at RSPCA Brighton Reptile Rescue, which is now looking after the 1ft-long snake, believe he's an Indian cat-eyed snake, or boiga, which is mildly venomous," said a spokesperson for the animal charity.

WITH Thurrock's first team not in action at the weekend, club attention centered on the seconds who had a testing Essex cup tie.

Thurrock Denes put out a strong team against Harlow on Saturday.

A DOG in an empty house sparked an emergency after it somehow started a microwave and caused a kitchen blaze.

Firefighters dashed to the house in Stanford-le-Hope this afternoon (Monday, 2 December) after being alerted to the blaze by the homeowner, who spotted the fire on a video link to his mobile phone.

BUS services in the west of Thurrock have been hit by the significant traffic congestion caused by emergency gas works.

The work - and temporary traffic lights - on London Road near Devonshire Road has brought traffic to a virtual standstill. And the knock-on effect is that roads in the area are also backed up.

A THURROCK school is taking in donations of food to give to some of its pupils who are turning up hungry – and it is also planning to provide Christmas presents for children whose parents can't afford them.

Headteacher at Purfleet Primary Acadeny, Eugene Samuel says: "Too many of our children are coming hungry to school and there is no way that academic progress can supersede the very basic human need for food."

VOLUNTEERS from a borough coffee shop and staff from Thurrock Council joined the weekend's regular monthly plastic and litter pick along the bank of the river Thames in Grays.

Grays Beachcombers meet at the Thurrock Yacht Club on the first Sunday of the month through the year and their last pick of 2019 proved very productive – and was witnessed by Keep Britain Tidy ambassador Wayne Dixon and his dog, Koda, who are 4,000 miles into a 7,000-mile litter pick around the UK's coastline.