Thurrock Hammers respond to Thurrock Council Consultation on Draft Local Plan

Thurrock Hammers Limited submitted its responses to the Thurrock Council Local Plan ‘Regulation 19’ consultation process on Tuesday 13th October.

The Local Plan process is designed to create a clear plan to meet all local needs against which planning applications will be judged and involves consultation and public examination by an independent Planning Inspector.

We have identified a number of significant omissions in the Draft Local Plan and this will be the first time that the case we have made for Speedway in Thurrock will be considered by a planning professional independent of the Council.

Alongside completing the lengthy online submission, we have also sent our representations in electronic form to the Local Plan team, Cllr Richard Bingley, leader of Thurrock Council, Cllr Tom Kelly (Portfolio Holder for Regeneration) and Alan Ward, Senior Planning Officer at Thurrock Council, who is leading on the Arena Essex Raceway application.

These documents are available to view here and here

Last week, (Tuesday 6th October 2026) Hammers director Mark Sexton and Brian Connolly met with Councillor Kelly and Mr Ward at the Council offices to outline our plans to return Speedway to Thurrock and the club’s thoughts and position on the draft Local Plan and specifically the future of the Arena Essex Raceway.

Mark reported that the meeting was constructive and we are confident that we will be having further discussions soon.

Now that the ‘reg 19’ consultation period is complete, the next step is for Council members to consider the Consultation responses before being approved by the Council for submission to the Planning Inspectorate for public examination by HM Planning Inspectors.