Category Archives: Essex

Asylum seekers with disabilities ‘abandoned’ in former Essex care home

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The site, set up as a standard asylum seeker hotel, has no care workers or nurses there as part of the contract

The Home Office has been accused of abandoning 55 asylum seekers with a range of severe disabilities and life-limiting conditions at a former care home in an Essex seaside town.

The asylum seekers, who fled various conflict zones including Sudan and Afghanistan, are struggling with a range of health conditions they have suffered from since childhood or life-changing injuries suffered in war zones.

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Essex inquest hears how boy, 12, died after wall collapsed on him and his father

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Scott-Swaley Stevens died at his home in Clacton-on-Sea of compression asphyxia, coroner says

A 12-year-old boy who was helping his father to knock down a garage wall at their home died after it collapsed on both of them, an inquest heard.

Scott-Swaley Stevens’ mother, Charmaine Lee, went to the fire station next door, shouting “help, my baby is trapped”, Wednesday’s hearing in Chelmsford was told.

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Essex pub that displayed golly dolls seized by police is vandalised

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White Hart Inn in Grays, which has been the subject of a reported hate crime, daubed with graffiti and has windows damaged

An Essex pub where police confiscated golly dolls has been vandalised with graffiti and damage to five windows occurring early on Sunday morning, police have said.

The incident occurred at about 12.40am at White Hart Inn in Grays. Essex police said they have deployed extra patrols in the area.

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Essex pub landlady replaces golliwog doll collection that was seized by police

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Benice Ryley plans to display new dolls despite police investigation into an alleged hate crime

The landlady of a pub whose collection of golliwog dolls was confiscated by police has assembled replacements, which she plans to display in defiance of a continuing investigation.

Last week four Essex police officers and a trainee seized all the dolls on show in the White Hart Inn in Grays as part of an investigation into an alleged hate crime.

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Essex police deny Braverman rebuked them over pub seizure of golliwog dolls

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Force rebuffs claim home secretary said they should focus on ‘catching criminals’ after items taken from White Hart Inn in Grays

Essex police have denied being rebuked by Suella Braverman for seizing a collection of golliwog dolls that were on display in a pub.

Officers from the force took several dolls from the White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex, last week as part of an investigation into an alleged hate crime reported in February.

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Croydon and Thurrock councils put into special measures

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Government-appointed managers will take over day-to-day running after authorities fell into effective bankruptcy

Two local authorities have been put into special measures after struggling to recover from the bad investments and governance failings that pushed them into effective bankruptcy.

The London borough of Croydon and Thurrock borough council in Essex have been told that government-appointed managers will take over the day-to-day running of operations, including overseeing all major financial and senior staffing decisions.

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British organised crime boss arrested in Thailand

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Richard Wakeling, 55, had been on the run since he fled the UK before his trial for drug smuggling in 2018

A British organised crime boss has been arrested in Thailand after being on the run for five years.

Richard Wakeling, 55, from Brentwood, Essex, tried to import £8m of liquid amphetamine into the UK in April 2016.

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Ex-Dreamboys boss jailed for attempted axe murder of wife

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‘Obsessive’ David Richards lay in wait for Alex Alam to leave her home after their relationship broke down

A former manager of the Dreamboys stripper group has been jailed for 27 years for attempted murder after attacking his wife with an axe.

David Richards, 42, attacked Alex Alam, 32, outside her home after their relationship broke down, fracturing her skull and cutting her face and scalp.

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Police release CCTV image thought to be of missing couple and newborn in Essex

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Image believed to be of Constance Marten, who went missing last week with her baby and Mark Gordon

A couple and their newborn baby who went missing last week are thought to have been seen after travelling inland from an Essex port, police have said.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon abandoned their vehicle when it broke down on the M61, near Bolton, on Thursday evening.

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Steak restaurant on paddle steamer in Essex starts sinking into lake

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Shopping centre eatery said to have begun sinking before lunch service and observers describe it as ‘going down like the Titanic’

A restaurant on a converted paddle steamer has begun to sink into a lake in Essex.

Photographs of the Miller & Carter Steakhouse at the Lakeside shopping centre showing it partially submerged emerged online on Friday. Some observers described the venue as “going down like the Titanic”, while one wrote online: “Looks like my family meal is cancelled!”

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Thurrock council admits disastrous investments caused £500m deficit

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Tory-led Essex authority is on brink of bankruptcy and has appealed to government for emergency bailout

A Tory-led council has admitted a series of disastrous investments in risky commercial projects caused it to run up an unprecedented deficit of nearly £500m and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.

The staggering scale of the catastrophe at Thurrock council in Essex – one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government – is contained in an internal report made to the council’s cabinet, which reveals it has lost £275m on investments it made in solar energy and other businesses, and has set aside a further £130m this year to pay back investment debts.

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Solar farm owner Toucan Energy enters administration amid Thurrock scandal

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Authority lent total of £655m over four years to owner of 53 solar parks across Britain

One of the country’s largest solar farm owners has entered administration amid the fallout from a scandal that forced an Essex council leader to resign.

Administrators at Interpath Advisory have been appointed to Toucan Energy Holdings, which owns a portfolio of 53 solar parks with a combined capacity of 513 megawatts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Tory-run Thurrock council faces inquiry over ‘exceptional’ debt levels

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External commissioners to take charge of finances amid ‘grave concerns’ local services could be at risk

The government has launched an urgent investigation into the finances of a Tory-run council amid “grave concerns” that local services are at risk from the authority’s exposure to more than a billion pounds in loans it took out to fund a series of commercial investments.

The communities secretary, Greg Clark, said government-appointed commissioners would take full control of Thurrock’s finances because of fears over “the exceptional level of financial risk and debt incurred by the council”.

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Just Stop Oil activists stage protests at Essex and Midlands oil terminals

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Essex police arrest 18 people at three locations as protesters try to disrupt distribution of fuel

Dozens of environmental protesters have blocked critical oil infrastructure in Essex and the Midlands as they revived a campaign to “just stop oil”.

At daybreak on Tuesday, about 50 people took part in protests targeting three oil terminals, from where fuel is distributed to petrol stations, the activist group Just Stop Oil said.

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Blooming Essex garden points to future of horticulture in a heating UK

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RHS Hyde Hall has made a virtue of its position in the driest county in England by embracing adaptable plants

It has not been artificially watered for 22 years, yet this garden, on an exposed slope in Essex, the driest county in the UK, is bursting with bloom.

A dry bed at the Royal Horticultural Society Hyde Hall dominated by cool greys and pale greens, and full of Mediterranean, Australian and African shrubs and flowers, could this be the future British garden?

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Body found after man went missing in sea near Clacton pier

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Emergency services discover body in Jaywick following disappearance of 21-year-old on UK’s hottest ever day

The body of a man has been found on the Essex coast two miles from where a 21-year-old went missing in the sea on Tuesday.

Five people were pulled from the water near Clacton pier and taken to hospital on Britain’s hottest recorded day, but one man remained unaccounted for. The search was scaled down after more than 24 hours.

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Ali Harbi Ali given whole-life sentence for murder of David Amess

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Amess’s family make plea for greater kindness in society after ‘beyond evil’ attack on MP

The family of Sir David Amess said they would “for ever shed tears” after his murder by a terrorist assassin who was sentenced to “die in prison” for an attack “on the heart of democracy”.

Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was handed a whole-life tariff by Mr Justice Sweeney after being convicted on Monday of murdering the MP and of planning terrorist attacks on other MPs, including the cabinet minister Michael Gove, for two years before he killed Amess.

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Revealed: the towns at risk from far-right extremism

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Harlow joins seaside resorts on charity’s list of 52 vulnerable areas in England and Wales

It was conceived as an “essay in civilisation”, but some have argued that Harlow has on occasion fallen short of this lofty ambition. Now a new analysis heralds fresh woe for the Essex new town – designed in 1947 – by labelling it one of the places in England and Wales most “at risk” from the fallout of the pandemic, which could spill over into support for rightwing extremism.

Of 336 councils, researchers identified 52 – including Harlow – where Covid is believed to have caused community tension and could inspire far-right activity. A report out on Monday from the Hope not Hate charitable trust says each of the places suffered a significant downturn in the pandemic, has a history of slow recovery from economic shocks and displays “less liberal than average” attitudes to migration and multiculturalism.

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Brentwood shaken by killings of two 16-year-olds, says Essex MP

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Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after teenagers’ deaths on Sunday

Two boys who were killed in Essex in what detectives are treating as suspected murders were 16 years old, the local MP has said.

Police were called to an address in Regency Court, Brentwood, at about 1.30am on Sunday. Three people were found injured at the scene and, two of them died. The third boy’s injuries were not life-threatening or life-changing, police said.

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