Thurrock Council

Thurrock District Council was first elected in 1973, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the Thurrock District on 1 April 1974. It replaced Thurrock Urban District Council, which governed a slightly larger area including part of Basildon New Town and had been formed in 1936 as an amalgamation of Grays Thurrock Urban District Council, Purfleet Urban District Council, Tilbury Urban District Council, and Orsett Rural District Council including associated parish councils; a result of the Local Government Act 1929. The council received borough status, permitting the council to be known as Thurrock Borough Council. Until 1998 it was constituted as non-metropolitan district council in a two-tier arrangement, sharing service provision with Essex County Council.

As a result of the 1992 Local Government Commission for England on 1 April 1998 Thurrock absorbed the powers of Essex County Council for its area, becoming a unitary authority. 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. The development corporation was absorbed by the council on 1 April 2012.

Prior to the 2015 local election, the council was run by a Labour minority administration, after the Labour Party lost its small majority at the 2014 election. Thurrock had previously been a hung council for several years after the Conservatives lost control in 2007.[1]

Since 1997 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:[2]

All 17 UKIP councillors left the party in January 2018 to form Thurrock Independents.[3]

Thurrock is divided into 20 wards and elects 49 councillors. One-third of the council is elected every year on a four-year term and so elections are held in three-year blocks (e.g. in 2014, 2015, and 2016; one will not be held in 2017; then in 2018, 2019, etc.) Councillors are elected through first-past-the-post voting. There are 19[4] committees, including:

• Cabinet
• Corporate parenting
• General services
• Health and wellbeing board
• Licensing
• Planning
• Standards and audit
• Corporate Scrutiny
• Cleaner, Greener and Safer Scrutiny
• Children's Services Scrutiny
• Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny
• Housing Scrutiny

Electoral wards

The borough's 20 electoral wards and corresponding representatives are:[5][6]

Electoral ward		Year of election
No.	Name	2016		2018		2019
1	Aveley and Uplands		Luke Spillman (TI)[lower-alpha 1]		Tim Aker (TI)[lower-alpha 1]		Colin Churchman (Con)
2	Ockendon		David Potter (TI)[lower-alpha 1]		Sue Shinnick (Lab)		Andrew Jefferies (Con)
3	Belhus		Angela Lawrence (Con)[lower-alpha 2]		Mike Fletcher (Lab)		Chris Baker (TI)[lower-alpha 1]
4	West Thurrock and South Stifford		Oliver Gerrish (Lab)		Qaisar Abbas (Lab)		Victoria Holloway (Lab)
5	South Chafford		Suzanne MacPherson (Con)		Abbie Akinbohun (Lab)	N/A
6	Chafford and North Stifford		Garry Hague (Con)	N/A			Mark Coxshall (Con)
7	Grays Riverside		Tony Fish (Lab)		Martin Kerin (Lab)		Jane Pothecary (Lab)
8	Grays Thurrock		John Kent (Lab)		Lynn Worrall (Lab)		Cathy Kent (Lab)
9	Stifford Clays	N/A			Elizabeth Rigby (Con)		Jennifer Smith (TI)[lower-alpha 1]
10	Little Thurrock Blackshots		Jocelyn Redsell (Con)		Ben Maney (Con)	N/A
11	Little Thurrock Rectory	N/A			Rob Gledhill (Con)		Tom Kelly (Con)
12	Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park	N/A			Bukky Okunade (Lab)		Allen Mayes (TI)[lower-alpha 1]
13	Tilbury St. Chads		John Allen (TI)[lower-alpha 1]		Steve Liddiard (Lab)	N/A
14	Chadwell St. Mary		Gerard Rice (Lab)		Barbara Rice (Lab)		Daniel Chukwu (Lab)
15	East Tilbury		Sue Sammons (Con)[lower-alpha 2]	N/A			Fraser Massey (Ind)
16	Stanford-Le-Hope West		Terry Piccolo (Con)	N/A			Shane Hebb (Con)
17	Corringham and Fobbing		Aaron Watkins (Con)	N/A			Deborah Huelin (Con)
18	Stanford East and Corringham Town		Jack Duffin (TI)[lower-alpha 1]		Alex Anderson (Con)		Shane Ralph (TI)[lower-alpha 1]
19	The Homesteads		Gary Collins (Con)		James Halden (Con)		Gary Byrne (TI)[lower-alpha 1]
20	Orsett		Susan Little (Con)		Barry Johnson (Con)	N/A

The Mayor is elected at the annual meeting which is held following council elections or in May in years when there are no council elections. The most recent mayors have been:

• 2004/05 — Ian Harrison
• 2005/06 — Colin Churchman
• 2006/07 — Joy Redsell
• 2007/08 — Diane Revell
• 2008/09 — John Everett
• 2009/10 — Maureen Pearce
• 2010/11 — Anne Cheale
• 2011/12 — Charles Curtis
• 2012/13 — Yash Gupta
• 2013/14 — Tony Fish
• 2014/15 — Steve Liddiard
• 2015/16 — Sue Gray
• 2016/17 — Cathy Kent
• 2017/18 — Tunde Ojetola[7]
• 2018/19 — Barbara Rice
• 2019/20 — Terry Piccolo

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