Thurrock Council

Thurrock Council is the local authority for the borough of Thurrock in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. Since 1998 the council has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association. The council is based in Grays.

In 2022 the council's level of debt arising from failed investments led to it issuing a Section 114 notice, being the local authority equivalent of declaring bankruptcy. The government directed neighbouring Essex County Council to take over Thurrock's finances and also appointed a new managing director for the council.

Since 2024, the government has planned to abolish the council and merge it with other parts of Essex as part of its planned reorganisation of local government in Essex in 2025, with the next local elections in 2025 likely postponed until 2026.

History

Thurrock Urban District had been created in 1936 from the former urban districts of Grays Thurrock, Purfleet and Tilbury and the Orsett Rural District.

Urban districts were abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. A new non-metropolitan district called Thurrock was created covering almost the same area as the former Thurrock Urban District, with just a minor change on the border with Basildon to place the whole designated area for Basildon new town in that district. The reformed Thurrock district was given borough status at the same time, allowing the council to call itself "Thurrock Borough Council" and letting the chair of the council the title of mayor.

The council was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998, taking over county-level services in the area from Essex County Council. The way the change was implemented was to create a new non-metropolitan county of Thurrock covering the borough, but with no separate county council; instead, the existing borough council took over county council functions, making it a unitary authority. Since 1998 the council has generally styled itself "Thurrock Council" rather than "Thurrock Borough Council". Thurrock remains part of the ceremonial county of Essex for the purposes of lieutenancy.

The planning function for large developments was exercised by the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation in the whole of the borough from 2003 to 2012.

Financial difficulties

In 2020, it emerged that the council had borrowed £420 million to buy into the solar power market, eventually rising to a total investment of £655million. One of the companies in which the council had invested, Toucan Energy, went into administration on 11 November 2022. Businessman Liam Kavanagh is accused of cheating the council out of as much as £130 million in relation to the deals. Thurrock also made a £94million loan to the Just Loans Group plc, a business lender which went bankrupt in June 2022.

On 2 September 2022, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities intervened in the running of Thurrock Council, passing financial control of the council to Essex County Council, as well as ordering a Best Value Inspection, in response to concerns about the council's level of financial risk and debt. The council's financial exposure arises from loans of more than a billion pounds used to fund commercial investments. Council leader Rob Gledhill resigned on 2 September 2022, the day the government intervention was announced.

On 29 November 2022, Thurrock Council admitted that in that financial year it had a near £500 million budget deficit, mostly from failed investments. It asked for emergency financial assistance from the government. On 19 December 2022 the council issued a Section 114 notice barring any new expenditure, being the local authority equivalent of declaring bankruptcy. In March 2023 the government appointed a new managing director for the council, Dave Smith.

Governance

As a unitary authority, Thurrock Council provides all local government services, albeit with oversight of the council's finances from Essex County Council since the government intervention in September 2022. There are no civil parishes in the borough, which is an unparished area.

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since the 2024 election.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:

Lower tier non-metropolitan district

Unitary authority

Leadership

The role of Mayor of Thurrock is largely ceremonial, usually being held by a different councillor each year. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1989 have been:

Composition

Following the 2024 election, and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to May 2025, the composition of the council was:

Of the eight independent councillors, five sit together as the "Non-political Alliance of Independent Councillors".

In February 2025, the government postponed the elections that were due to take place in May 2025 for a year, to allow for alternative local government structures for the area to be considered.

Thurrock Youth Cabinet

Thurrock Council also operates Thurrock Youth Cabinet, an elected youth council of young people in the borough aged 11 to 18, or 11 to 25 if they have a disability or special needs. Members are elected from schools or local youth groups to represent one of the 20 wards of Thurrock and have to live, study or work in the borough. The Member of Youth Parliament and the Deputy Member of Youth Parliament for Thurrock also sit on the youth cabinet.

Premises

The council is based at Thurrock Town Hall on New Road in Grays. When the council was created in 1974 it used the former offices of the Thurrock Urban District Council in a converted house called Farley and adjoining buildings around the junction of Whitehall Lane and Palmers Avenue in Grays. In 1986 the council built itself a new headquarters at the corner of New Road and Derby Bridge Road in the centre of Grays. The building has subsequently been extended westward along New Road with a large central block added in 1992 and a new wing at the corner of New Road and High Street completed in 2022.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2004, the council has comprised 49 councillors representing 20 wards, with each ward electing two or three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, electing a third of the council each time for a four-year term. In the fourth year of the cycle there is no election. This system will change from 2025, with elections being held every four years for the whole council.

Wards

The wards, with their numbers on the map below, are:

• Aveley and Uplands (1)
• Belhus (3)
• Chadwell St Mary (14)
• Chafford and North Stifford (6)
• Corringham and Fobbing (17)
• East Tilbury (15)
• Grays Riverside (7)
• Grays Thurrock (8)
• Little Thurrock Blackshots (10)
• Little Thurrock Rectory (11)
• Ockendon (2)
• Orsett (20)
• South Chafford (5)
• Stanford East and Corringham Town (18)
• Stanford-le-Hope West (16)
• Stifford Clays (9)
• The Homesteads (19)
• Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park (12)
• Tilbury St Chads (13)
• West Thurrock and South Stifford (4)

Arms

Mayors

The mayors since 1982 have included:

See also

Thurrock, the area with borough status which this council administers.