The Mayor invited all those present to reflect on and remember Thurrock’s fallen of World War One.

The Mayor welcomed Members to the last Full Council of the year and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

The Mayor thanked Well House Gallery and the artist, Phil Smith, for continuing to allow him to showcase their work in the parlour.

The Mayor held a ‘best of Thurrock variety night’ to promote the wide range of skills in Thurrock and to promote and raise funds for Contact the Elderly and Thurrock Community Chest. The Mayor commended the work of Thurrock Young Producers with the event being organised by 18 year old Franki McEwen. The event had generated around £1500 with about 150 people in attendance. The Major also thanked Members for the cross party support.

Thank you to Councillors Redsell and Maney for taking the time to plant a tree at St George’s playing field to commemorate the Queen’s 70th wedding anniversary.

Congratulations were given to Mr and Mrs England who had celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this week.

The Mayor also commended Jasmine Collier, Thurrock's Head Cadet and the winner of Essex Police Cadet of the Year.  That the Volunteer Police cadets had recently started in Thurrock and had been growing from strength to strength with Jasmine being a role model to young people across the borough. 

That the Thurrock Highways Team led by Councillor Brian Little had recently won an Award for the Best Use of New Technology for Thurrock’s collaboration on the Pothole spotter pilot scheme. That Councillor Sue Little and the Health Team had won the Local Government Information Unit Health and Care Award. The Mayor congratulated everyone involved.

The Mayor reminded Members that only a few days were left for nominations for the Thurrock Civic Awards 2018 with more information and how to make your nomination available on the Council’s website.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Gledhill, updated Members on the following:

Councillor Gledhill echoed the Christmas wishes made by Councillor Ojetola and thanked those that had helped with the switching on of the Christmas lights in Grays last weekend and all other events around the borough. That funding from the Community Economic Development Fund helped to assist with the lighting in Corringham and that the Tilbury lights would be switched on this Friday.

The fantastic partnership project of Give a Gift being run at Intu Lakeside where hundreds of hours had been donated by Officers, residents and Councillors to ensure the shop was well staffed. Councillor Gledhill encouraged Members to continue to volunteer for such a good cause.

An update on Fill It showed that since April 2017, 1276 potholes had been filled, with 124 potholes filled in November 2017.

The Leader thanked Councillors Redsell and Maney for taking the time to plant a tree at St George’s playing field to commemorate the Queen’s 70th wedding anniversary which demonstrated that Thurrock showed commitment to the Royal Family.

Congratulations were also given to Mr and Mrs England who had celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this week.

That Lisa Holliday had made the finals of the prestigious annual social awards and although she had not won the Council should be incredibly proud of her hard work.

That Councillor Halden had also been shortlisted for the Local Government Information Unit national award.

That Inspection Coachworks had been awarded a £20,000 grant from the Low Carbon across the South East which had enabled them to invest a much greater amount in their company to reduce the electricity use and therefore their carbon footprint. This had meant they could use that money to employ more local people for local jobs supporting other local industries in the Thurrock area. That every opportunity should be made to get Thurrock businesses to make an application to help businesses reduce their footprint and make Thurrock a cleaner and greener place.