Category: Essex County Council

Last night was the first meeting of the new Regeneration & Environment Committee – one of the four new service committees brought in by the Labour-led Coalition under their new Committee System, which replaced the Leader and Cabinet model. It is chaired by Cllr Alan Ball (WI, Wickford Castledon). The meeting was an embarrassing farce…

I start with my customary apology. I have not had time to blog for a while and I never got around to writing up the July meeting of Full Council but I want to write up the meeting of Full Council held Thursday night. MAX WHITLOCK The evening started with tributes being paid to Olympic…

As usual, I must apologise for the length of time it has taken me to write up the Annual Meeting of Basildon Council, which took place on Thursday 26th May, just over a week ago. It does sometimes take me a while to find the time to sit down and put pen to paper (or,…

Earlier this month I took part in elections to the Council of Governors of Basildon & Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the body that runs Basildon Hospital. Those of you who are members of the Trust (and, if you aren’t then you should consider joining – anyone can join their local NHS trust and…

Apologies that is has taken me over a week to pen this blog about the budget-setting meeting of Full Council on Thursday 11th February but I have had a lot on. The meeting was preceded by an extraordinary meeting of the Council to vote on a proposal from the Deputy Mayor – Cllr Danny Lawrence…

As regular readers will know, I do not generally write up meetings of Basildon Council’s Planning Committee, but last week’s meeting held on Tuesday 30th June turned out to be an unusually controversial affair. Firstly, a bit of background on the new enlarged committee, which now has ten members: four Tories – Cllrs Carole Morris…

The events at last week’s meeting of Full Council were fairly hum-drum, considering the backdrop and the huge changes to the Council’s composition over the past few weeks, and I therefore anticipate this blog will be more ‘gossipy’ than usual. So, if political gossip and intrigue does not interest you then read no further. First,…

I don’t generally write up Planning Committee meetings but, as Tuesday night’s one has proved controversial and I’ve been getting lots of questions about it – both via e-mail and directed to me on social media – I thought it’d be simpler and easier to write it up for my website.  So here goes. For…