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Next steps

The Corporation aims to have in place Master Plans and development frameworks for the main settlements of Thurrock by late 2008 when the Corporation's planning policy framework will include Master Plans for:

1. Aveley & South Ockendon.
2. Purfleet.
3. Grays Town Centre.
4. Lakeside & West Thurrock.
5. South East Thurrock (Tilbury, Chadwell St Mary, East Tilbury and Linford); and
6. East Thurrock (Stanford-Le-Hope, Corringham and surrounding communities).

Alongside the development of its Master Plans, the Corporation will also further develop its land acquisition programme in order to assemble the key sites for the major projects set out in the Corporate Plan.

The Corporation will also continue to actively explore opportunities to engage with the private sector through the creation of innovative investment and development vehicles utilising the Corporation's capital (and other public assets) as leverage to maximise the provision of private sector investment. The first of these vehicles will create a new centre for Purfleet as well as bring additional jobs and houses.

The Corporation will continue its work with the public and private sectors in order to secure significant investment in Thurrock's underperforming and in some cases failing infrastructure. In particular, the Corporation will work with Thurrock Council, the South West Essex Primary Care Trust and the Learning and Skills Council (Essex) in the preparation of plans to transform Thurrock's health and social care facilities and to improve opportunities for learning and skills development across the borough.

As part of this strategy the Corporation will continue its work with the Royal Opera House and other key partners to establish a Production Park and Academy of Performing Arts at the High House site in Purfleet.

The Corporation believes its efforts to revitalise and grow Thurrock's economy will fail if its limited resources are spread too thinly. Therefore, its interventions to secure its economic strategy will be concentrated on achieving growth at five principal growth 'hubs' situated within its network of Master Plans. It is convinced from the evidence of market pressures and interest in locating and developing in Thurrock that, if the five hubs are successful, they will 'bring up' the areas around them and act as a catalyst for the rejuvenation of the Borough as a whole. For this to happen, it is essential that all residents and communities in Thurrock have easy access to all five hubs, especially by public transport, and ensuring this is possible is one of the Corporation's main aims.

The five hubs are:

1. London Gateway.
2. Tilbury.
3. Grays.
4. Lakeside/West Thurrock.
5. Purfleet.

The Corporation will focus its own direct interventions by concentrating on bringing forward for development a limited number of strategically important sites within the five hubs. In the Corporation's view, all of these sites suffer to some significant degree from the impact of market failure, (e.g. contamination, lack of access, the need for site assembly etc), or their development is of strategic importance and the intervention of the Corporation is necessary to bring them forward for early development. As well as providing capacity for new jobs, these sites will act as market leader catalysts to kick start more general market activity. These sites are:

1. Essex Gateway 'Arena Essex' (Lakeside/West Thurrock) - a 52 hectare gateway site adjacent to the Lakeside Basin that is currently zoned as greenbelt although it does not perform a greenbelt function. This site is principally owned by two parties. The Corporation has brought the two sides together in an attempt to secure a tripartite joint venture and has co-ordinated the preparation of a development brief for a major leisure-led mixed use development that will provide capacity for circa 1,000 new jobs.
2. Thurrock Learning Campus (South Grays) - As part of its proposals for South Grays the Corporation is working with a wide range of institutions operating in the education and skills sector to secure a site for the development of a new 40,000 metre squared Learning Campus. This facility will become the focal point for the delivery of further and higher education, adult/community and work-based learning.
3. Hogg Lane South 'Rates Cluster' (North Grays) - The Corporation is seeking to assemble land at Hogg Lane to secure the development of the PCT's New Generation Community Hospital. As part of this work, the Corporation has already acquired land from Defence Estates (Grays Territorial Army Centre) and is now in negotiation with the Post Office and other land owners.
4. Botany Way (Purfleet) - a major site assembly exercise to acquire circa 40 site ownerships to create around 90 acres to implement the Purfleet Master Plan. This will include the establishment of a new community hub around the station, new healthcare facilities, a new link road between the Purfleet by-pass and London Road to open up Botany Way and a new three form entry primary school. The Corporation will be promoting a CPO to acquire all of the sites inside Botany Way when a Funding Vehicle has been established.
5. Ponds Farm and Sandy Lane (Purfleet) - a potential 48 acre employment site in two phases at the Wennington/Aveley junction of the A13 currently designated as greenbelt although it does not perform a greenbelt function. The proposal to redesignate the land for future employment use has been consulted on through the emerging Aveley & South Ockendon Master Plan. The Ponds Farm site is required to relocate Kappa Lockfast from Purfleet waterfront. Kappa is the last manufacturer remaining on the waterfront and has become enveloped by residential development.
6. Kappa Lockfast (Purfleet) - light industrial manufacturer with a long historical relationship with Purfleet. The company is very successful and currently employs around 65 people locally. Following a series of industrial closures on Purfleet waterfront, Kappa now stands alone and isolated in an old factory building. The Corporation is intervening to relocate the plant to Ponds Farm to safeguard the 65 jobs for the future and allow the company to expand its existing operation and generate new jobs. The site Kappa will vacate forms an integral part of the Purfleet waterfront development strategy which the Corporation would like to see developed as a single and cohesive exercise in highest quality Urban Design. The development of the Purfleet waterfront sites is of critical importance as the waterfront sites are effectively the 'Gateway to the Gateway'. This position was endorsed by the Secretary of State in an appeal decision letter issued in October 2006 in respect of Taylor Wimpey plc's proposals for Cory's Wharf which forms part of the wider site area.
7. Purfleet Farm and Unilever Land (Purfleet) - Purfleet Farm extends to approximately 20 acres of land vested in the Department for Transport (DfT) and acquired for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) and is now surplus to requirements. Along with Unilever's vacant site of 9 acres and other adjacent sites, the combined sites represent a strategic employment area which the Corporation would like to see optimised to deliver around 1,000 high quality new jobs. If the Corporation does not intervene the site is likely to go to B8 warehouse use which will employ few people or more probably surface car storage. The Corporation has begun the necessary land assembly work and has concluded terms for the acquisition of the crucial road/access way into the main site area and the jetties on the waterfront.

Niall Lindsay.

Chief Executive.

26 June 2008.