News in Thurrock

THE fuel shortage caused by panic buying has now impacted on local football, with matches featuring local teams due to be played tomorrow night being called off.

The Isthmian League has allowed teams to call off fixtures because of the possibility of fuel shortages meaning players might not be able to get to matches.

A COURT of appeal has reviewed a sentence and jailed a Thurrock man convicted of fraud which included targeting pensioners.

Michael O'Neill, of Pilgrims Lane, North Stifford, initially avoided jail and was handed a suspended sentence of 21 months at Inner London Crown Court in July after admitting conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

LABOUR councillors for Grays Riverside and Grays Thurrock wards have announced they are to restart their regular advice surgeries, on the first Saturday of each month, starting on Saturday, 2 October.

Surgeries will be held in the cafe at Morrison's store from 10am to 12noon.

CLOCKWISE traffic on the M25 has now tailed back over the QEII bridge as workers carry out emergency repairs in Kent.

At 9.45am it was reported traffic is a virtual standstill due to the work underway at Junction 3 with the M20, in order to carry out works on the bridge at Swanley which was closed at around 8.30am.

GATEWAY 97.8, the community radio station which serves Basildon and East Thurrock, has been shortlisted for two prestigious radio awards.

Gateway, based in Basildon's Eastgate Centre, has been shortlisted in this year's Community Radio Awards.

Aveley 4, Barking 0

AVELEY turned in a superb performance, backed by an enthusiastic and noisy crowd of 341 to gain revenge for their recent FA Cup defeat on penalties at the hands of Barking with Friday evening's emphatic Isthmian North win at Parkside.

ONCE again a majority of Thurrock Council planning councillors have gone against their officers' advice and have recommended approval for a controversial new homes development in the green belt.

Developers once again brought a plan for five new homes in Fobbing before the planning committee and – despite a recommendation to reject, by a vote of six to two, councillors gave the green light for the proposal at 40, High Road.

A THURROCK woman is branching out into business by putting her experience in the world of estate agency to good use.

Stanford-le-Hope-born Ashlee Mellett, who is married with a three-year-old son, decided that she wanted to build a business in Thurrock and feels there is a gap in the market for someone to work as a personalised estate agent.

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build an apartment block containing 32 new homes has been thrown back to developers.

A meeting of Thurrock Council's planning committee this evening (Thursday, 23 September) deferred making a decision on the application.

CONTROVERSIAL plans for four chalet homes on a busy Stanford-le-Hope road have been unanimously thrown out.

The scheme was a second attempt to win permission to demolish an existing building at 63 Wharf Road. An earlier bid to put seven homes on the site was refused but the developers came back with a new plan.