Chris Brookhouseintroduced himself as the CEO of Thames Enterprise Park and Thames Oilport, which were owned by a joint venture of Greenergy, Vopak and Shell, he added that was also a director of Greenergy. Graham Alexandra introduced himself being the Head of Business Development, and Phil Kennedy a Senior Director at FTI Consulting both present to speak on behalf of Thames Enterprise Park.

The Final Interim Masterplan was presented to the Committee by Thames Enterprise Park. The presentation set out the development strategy and planning considerations for the creation of Thames Enterprise Park, a site comprising approximately 405 acres of previously developed land at the former Coryton refinery.

The Final Interim Masterplan informed the committee of the following;

•           It would provide for a range of other uses, such as logistics, storage and distribution and complementary ancillary services.

•           That the scale and location of the site, provided scope to both respond to market demand and to create an attractive environment within which to invest and to work.

•           It was explained to the Committee that once completed the Thames Enterprise Park will form one of the largest developments of its kind in Europe and provide a major boost to future growth and prosperity of the Borough and the wider Thames Gateway South Essex area.

It was explained to the Committee that Thames Enterprise Park held a meeting in March 2015 to inform Head Teachers of the potential job opportunities that would arise from the development of the Thames Enterprise Park. Councillor Kerin felt that the employment and training opportunities were good and questioned what outcomes came from the meeting with Head Teachers. Thames Enterprise Park explained that the meeting was very responsive and that school visits would be arranged by the preferred bidder when the sale is complete which would encourage young people to consider a career in this area of work. The Head of Regeneration explained that they will aspire to a similar training process currently undertaken at the Royal Opera House. It was added that Officers would aspire to populate the workforce at Thames Enterprise Park with Thurrock residents. The Chair of the Committee requested for a follow up report to come back to the Committee regarding the education training for The Thames Enterprise Park.

Councillor Liddiard questioned if public transport was being considered in the development, it was explained by Officers that this was incorporated in the transport plan. The Head of Regeneration confirmed that £9 million had been secured for the redevelopment of Stanford station. Further to that the Committee was informed that the Thames Enterprise Park would create 5,964 transport movements over 24 hours it was explained that there was more work to do in the future to reduce that figure.

The Chair of the Committee questioned if there would be one owner of the Thames Enterprise Park, and if so would the Council have a guarantee if the land management was to fail. Thames Enterprise Park confirmed that there would be one owner of the 403 acres that were for sale, with the current owners retaining land for Thames Oil port. They explained that there was no guarantee that the land management would not fail, although it was added that the risk of this happening was very low.

RESOLVED:

To note that the Committee endorsed the emerging Final Interim Masterplan for the Thames Enterprise Park.