Thurrock Council | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | 1 April 1974 |
Leadership | |
Mayor of Thurrock | James Halden since 26 May 2022 |
Leader of the Council | Rob Gledhill, Conservative since 25 May 2016 |
Chief executive | Lyn Carpenter since September 2015 |
Structure | |
Seats | 49 councillors |
Political groups |
|
Length of term | 4 years |
Elections | |
First past the post | |
Last election | 5 May 2022 |
Motto | |
Secundum Tamesim Quovis Gentium | |
Meeting place | |
Civic Offices, New Road, Grays | |
Website | |
www | |
Constitution | |
Constitution |
Thurrock Council is the local council for the borough of Thurrock in Essex, England. Since 1997, Thurrock has been a unitary authority, combining the functions of a non-metropolitan county with that of a non-metropolitan district. The other such authority in Essex is Southend-on-Sea. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association.
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.[1]
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.[citation needed]
Main article: Thurrock Council elections |
For most of the council's history, it has been controlled by Labour, including from 1982 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2015. Since 2016 the council has been under no overall control, but with a Conservative leader, Rob Gledhill.[2][3]
Historic political control is shown alongside the historic election results.
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 every fourth year there is no election. Councillors are elected through first-past-the-post voting. There are 19 committees, including:[4]
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)[a] | Tim Aker (TI)[a] | Colin Churchman (Con) | |||
2 | Ockendon | David Potter (TI)[a] | Sue Shinnick (Lab) | Andrew Jefferies (Con) | |||
3 | Belhus | Angela Lawrence (Con)[b] | Mike Fletcher (Lab) | Chris Baker (TI)[a] | |||
4 | West Thurrock and South Stifford | Oliver Gerrish (Lab) | Qaisar Abbas (Lab) | Victoria Holloway (Lab) | |||
5 | South Chafford | Suzanne MacPherson (Con) | Abbie Akinbohun (Lab) | — | |||
6 | Chafford and North Stifford | Garry Hague (Con) | — | 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 | — | Elizabeth Rigby (Con) | Jennifer Smith (TI)[a] | |||
10 | Little Thurrock Blackshots | Jocelyn Redsell (Con) | Ben Maney (Con) | — | |||
11 | Little Thurrock Rectory | — | Rob Gledhill (Con) | Tom Kelly (Con) | |||
12 | Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park | — | Bukky Okunade (Lab) | Allen Mayes (TI)[a] | |||
13 | Tilbury St. Chads | John Allen (TI)[a] | Steve Liddiard (Lab) | — | |||
14 | Chadwell St. Mary | Gerard Rice (Lab) | Barbara Rice (Lab) | Daniel Chukwu (Lab) | |||
15 | East Tilbury | Sue Sammons (Con)[b] | — | Fraser Massey (Ind) | |||
16 | Stanford-Le-Hope West | Terry Piccolo (Con) | — | Shane Hebb (Con) | |||
17 | Corringham and Fobbing | Aaron Watkins (Con) | — | Deborah Huelin (Con) | |||
18 | Stanford East and Corringham Town | Jack Duffin (TI)[a] | Alex Anderson (Con) | Shane Ralph (TI)[a] | |||
19 | The Homesteads | Gary Collins (Con) | James Halden (Con) | Gary Byrne (TI)[a] | |||
20 | Orsett | Susan Little (Con) | Barry Johnson (Con) | — |
Thurrock Council has a leader, mayor and chief executive. The leader of the council is also typically the leader of its largest party. They are scrutinised by the leader of the opposition, who typically leads the council's largest non-governing party.
The current leader is Conservative councillor Rob Gledhill, who has been in office since 2016, while the current leader of the opposition is Labour Group leader John Kent. Kent was previously the leader of the council from 2010 to 2016, when he stood down after his party's loss in the 2016 council election. He remained leader of the Labour Group until his parliamentary candidacy in the 2017 general election,[7] returning after his successor Oliver Gerrish's resignation in August 2018.[8] He left his post after again standing for election to parliament in 2019 but returned after his successor Jane Pothecary resigned from the leadership in 2020.[9][10] From 2016 to 2018, the leader of the opposition was UKIP Group and then Thurrock Independent Group leader Graham Snell,[11][12] who was de-seated[13] and lost the opposition leadership to Labour's Oliver Gerrish after the 2018 council election.
The mayor acts as the council's chairman and undertakes ceremonial duties. They usually serve for a one-year term, with a new mayor being elected by councillors in an annual council session.[14] Although rare, mayors have served for a longer period, such as when Mayor Yash Gupta served from 2011 to 2013.[15][16] The current mayor is Conservative councillor James Halden, who is the first homosexual to serve in this position. He was sworn in on 26 May 2022.[17] The first mayor in Thurrock was Margaret Jones who served from 1974[18] and the first Black mayor was Tunde Ojetola who served from 2017 to 2018.[19]
Historic leaders and mayors are recorded with the historic election results.
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