News | Thurrock Council

Grays Library Fun Palace: Celebrate community, creativity and connection!

2 October 2025

Grays Library is proud to be part of the national and international Fun Palaces movement, joining hundreds of venues across the globe in a weekend of free, fun, and inclusive activities for all ages.
Date: Saturday 4 October
Time: 9:30am to 12:30pm
Fun Palaces are all about sharing skills and connecting communities, and this year, Grays Library is bringing together local talent, creativity, and wellbeing in a celebration of what makes Thurrock special.

Time to book your next great day out at Grangewaters

2 October 2025

Booking your favourite outdoor activity at Grangewaters just got easier.
Thurrock’s unique year-round outdoor activity and education centre has launched a new standalone website, transforming its booking process.
Now is the perfect time to go online and book your family day out over the October half term.
The easy-to-use site guides you through the fantastic range of activities and courses at the centre, including abseiling, archery, climbing, sailing, paddle boarding, kayaking and bushcraft.

Join Stoptober in Thurrock and start your smoke-free journey today

1 October 2025

Stoptober, the annual national campaign to help smokers quit has launched in Thurrock today (1 October). Residents are being encouraged to take the first step towards a healthier, smoke-free future, with a wide range of free local support and incentives available.
Thurrock Health Trainer Service is on hand throughout October to help residents successfully quit smoking, with a tried and tested approach that includes:

Kynoch Court residents show their generosity

1 October 2025

More than £1,000 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support thanks to a fundraiser hosted by sheltered housing residents in Stanford-le-Hope.
Residents at Kynoch Court worked hard to organise the fundraising evening, and thanks to the incredible generosity of residents, friends and family, £1,100 was raised to support the vital work of the cancer care charity.
The fundraising efforts culminated with Cllr Sue Shinnick, Mayor of Thurrock, paying a visit to personally thank the residents. During the visit, she was presented with a cheque of the money raised.

Thurrock’s proposal for four new councils in Greater Essex submitted to Government

26 September 2025

A proposal for four unitary councils in Greater Essex, to replace the current 15 councils, has been submitted to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The proposal, put forward by Thurrock Council, carefully considers data, evidence, insight and residents’ views, to strike the right balance of councils that are both financially sustainable and close to communities.

Children take up the challenge

24 September 2025

Our libraries' Story Garden Summer Reading Challenge 2025 encouraged a total of 2,340 children across Thurrock to read over the summer holidays, beating the patricipation figures for 2024.
Story Garden encourages children of all ages to keep reading what they enjoy over the summer which also helps maintain their reading levels for when they return back to school in the autumn.
Congratulations to Kenningtons Primary Academy, which this year won the special Summer Reading Challenge School Shield. Kenningtons had 33% of its pupils complete the challenge.

Dine out on a book

24 September 2025

Our libraries are holding a series of innovative Literary Lunches for adults where you can chat about books, food and cooking over a light lunch. The events are part of the Big Tasty Read, a national celebration of reading.
Literary lunches take place between 12 noon and 2pm at Corringham Library (Friday 10 October), Grays Library (Monday 13 October), Chadwell Library (Tuesday 14 October, between 11am and 1pm) and Belhus Library (Thursdays, 16 October).
The events are free, but booking is essential. Call your local library to book your place.

Recycle Week 2025 - do you know what goes in the different bins?

22 September 2025

Do you recycle as much as you can? Thanks to a national campaign you can learn a little bit more about the everyday items that you should be putting in your recycling bin.
We’re showing our support for National Recycle Week (22-28 September), a campaign that is all about understanding what everyday items can be recycled instead of being thrown into general waste.
As part of this week’s campaign, we’re sharing information and resources that will help to improve residents’ knowledge of recycling. Collectively, small changes can make a big difference.

Thurrock Council introduces new Selective Licensing Scheme to improve privately rented homes in the borough

19 September 2025

A new scheme has been introduced to help improve the quality of privately rented homes and reduced risk of unsafe living conditions for private tenants.
Selective Licensing, which will go live in January 2026, will require all landlords in the designated wards below to obtain a licence to let their properties, excluding Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) that are already covered by the existing mandatory or additional licensing schemes.
The decision to go ahead with this new scheme has been made to raise housing standards and support better tenancy management.

Work starts on exciting development project that will bring new affordable housing to Aveley

19 September 2025

Construction work has started for a transformational project that will redevelop three blocks of flats into modern, high-quality homes.
Work is underway at Teviot Avenue in Aveley to demolish three existing blocks of flats containing 36 council homes that were built from non-traditional materials in the 1950s, so that 48 new, affordable council homes can be built.
The redevelopment of numbers 158-228 (evens only) at Teviot Avenue was approved at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday 13 March 2024, and work is set to be completed by Autumn 2027.