News in Thurrock

THURROCK Council has launched its Household Support Fund after the government allocated more than £1.2million to support vulnerable households across the borough.

The funding will provide essential support to households most in need this winter helping with bills and food as the country continues its recovery from the pandemic.

THURROCK Council has launched a poster campaign to urge residents and visitors to the borough to make sure they put their litter in bins or take it home with them.

The authority says that last year its street cleaning team cleared up nearly 3,500 tonnes of litter from the borough's streets.

THE leader of Thurrock Council has spoken of the 'extremely worrying' surge in cases of Covid-19 in the borough.

In his weekly message to resident Cllr Rob Gledhill says: "While nationally infection rates have decreased, here in Thurrock the rate of infection has increased again for the fourth week in a row, something which is extremely worrying.

MOTORISTS travelling on the A13 eastbound just past the Five Bells junction at Fobbing have been warned they face delays, possibly for up to two weeks, after a carriageway collapse today (Friday, 29 October).

Essex County Council have announced that an emergency lane closure will be implemented tonight due to a collapsed slab on the carriageway.

A TEAM of midwives from Basildon Hospital have won a prestigious Royal College of Midwives award for their excellence in bereavement care.

The team of three based at Basildon Hospital, known as the Lullaby Team, were given the award at an event in London in front of their peers.

THURROCK Council has completed a consultation on the controversial closure of its meals on wheels service and two day care centres in a bid to save more than £500,000.

The council began the consultation in July when lockdown measures preventing the use of three day centres were set to be lifted.

AFTER a long debate that featured the concerns of local residents and dramatic rhetoric from councillors the green light has been given to building a new secondary school in Grays.

Planning permission for the new Orsett Heath Academy was granted at a meeting of Thurrock Council's planning committee last night – though most of the councillors who eventually voted for the proposal expressed their concerns about traffic issues.

THURROCK Council has warned borough residents they may be in line for another drenching with heavy rainfall that might lead to flooding due across the region over the weekend and particularly late on Saturday evening and through Sunday morning.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning which says: "A band of rainfall will arrive across southwest England and Wales shortly after midnight and then push quickly northeastwards (lasting only 2 to 3 hours in any location) before finally clearing from Essex and Kent into the North Sea.

THE Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal has started in Grays with the raising of the Poppy Appeal flag at Grays Memorial at 8am today (Friday, 29 October).

The Legion will be collecting at various locations in Grays including Grays Town Centre, Morrisons and Lakeside Shopping Centre over the next couple of weeks leading up to the Remembrance weekend which culminates on Sunday, 14 November.

THERE were more delays and disruption to journeys after another protest by climate change campaigners on the M25 this morning.

Police were alerted around 8am with reports that a number of people had been seen walking into the traffic to block both carriageways between Junctions 28 and 29.