News in Thurrock

PARENTS of ten and 11-year-old children across the borough have been reviewing their options after receiving notice of which picks for secondary school have been granted.

Thurrock Council has informed parents and carers of year six students in Thurrock today (Tuesday, 1 March) of the child's secondary school place offers for September 2022.

FIREFIGHTERS freed a man this morning (Tuesday, 1 March), when his car left the road and got stuck on an embankment.

Crews from Grays were called to the incident which happened at around 10am on Stifford Hill between South Ockendon and North Stifford.

A COMMITTEE will hear next week that the exact cause of the fire in a Grays tower block remains undtermined - so as a precaustion all blocks in the borough are being checked to ensure their electrics are safe.

After two months, an investigation by UK Power Networks (UKPN) has confirmed an electrical fault was the cause of a fire at 15-storey Lionel Oxley House, New Road, Grays, on Boxing day last Christmas.

IN an extraordinary BBC interview, the leader of Thurrock Council has detailed why he thinks tower blocks in Grays should be pulled down – but he says it may take five to ten years for that to happen and in the meantime the council will have to pump millions into the blighted homes to make them habitable.

Cllr Rob Gledhill, leader of Thurrock Council's Conservative administration, was talking on BBC Essex's Sadie Nine show on Monday (28 February) and seemed to be shooting from the hip with his comments about significant problems at the flats – which the local administration had previously played down.

THE number of runaway children in care in Thurrock has risen by 84 per cent, latest figures show.

Between October and December last year, there were 173 "missing episodes" involving 32 children compared to the previous year when 23 children went missing on 94 occasions

THOUGH there are legal hoops to jump through, a borough councillor's longstanding campaign to call time on nuisance bikers who have caused fatal accidents in the borough may soon bear fruit.

Conservative Cllr Joy Redsell has been consistently on the front foot over recent years in calling for the police and council to do more to combat rogue riders who cause a threat to life and limb with their illegal activities on borough roads and particularly open spaces including parks.

THURROCK Council is progressing its £26 million scheme to create 82 affordable homes on the site of council offices in Grays – first revealed by housing portfolio holder Cllr Luke Spillman in October last year.

Nub News exclusively reported on the surprise announcement by Cllr Spillman on his plans for the council's civic offices – which turned a previous pledge that the site would be sold to pay for the council's office expansion project on its head.

A GROUP of Thurrock residents have created a Facebook page to organise 'non-political' tree planting to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

A number of councillors have taken to social media with pictures of them planting trees as part of Thurrock Council's efforts to mark the anniversary.

MORE information has emerged about last night's fire at a block of flats in Grays, which was started when a electric bicycle battery being recharged overheated and triggered the blaze.

Though the incident was dealt with relatively swiftly after seven fire crews attended the blaze and quickly located the fire and cleared the smoke-filled landing, some residents have expressed concern about the lack of an effective alarm, system in much-maligned Keir Hardie tower block.

A TILBURY woman and her pet dog are on the mend after being savagely attacked by an unleashed dog in an open space in the town.

Nub News reported on the ferocious attack last week and shared an appeal by the woman's daughter for information about the rogue dog that attacked her mum Tracy and her small pet dog Chloe.