Archive

  • Southend Council back down over pavement repair bill

    SOUTHEND Council has apologised for wrongly sending a householder a repair bill for a pavement which didn’t need fixing. Campaigner Boo Beckett took up the case after a friend was threatened with court action if they didn’t pay the £122 bill.

  • Southend drug dealer locked up after police sting

    A NOTORIOUS young drug dealer has been locked up for more than two years after supplying an undercover officer with cocaine and cannabis. Alfred Tusha, 20, supplied the officer in Southend on three separate occasions in April this year, Southend

  • Raw sewage floods Joan's driveway

    A PENSIONER was disgusted to find raw sewage flooding her driveway following heavy rain. Recent rainfall caused some drains to overflow in Benfleet leaving Joan Lark’s driveway and garden covered in a disgusting mess. Mrs Lark, 87, of Church

  • Local firms help Echo winner furnish her home

    A HOME makeover is taking shape thanks to generous donations from local businesses. Kerrie Eley, 26, of Methersgate, Basildon, was named the lucky winner of a £7,000 Echo prize after her kind-hearted sister put her name forward. Her shower

  • Cancer con woman who got free wedding admits fraud

    A WOMAN has admitted conning friends and strangers out of thousands of pounds by pretending to have terminal cancer.  In a dramatic twist Danielle Watson, 24, changed her plea to guilty following the opening of the case against her at Southend

  • Jack is 'shadow' MP for Castle Point

    A YOUNGSTER is following in the footsteps of his local MP...for his work experience. Jack Duffield, 15, a pupil at King John School, Thundersley, has been given the chance to shadow Castle Point MP Rebecca Harris during Work Experience Week.

  • Passengers asked to leave a plane because it was too heavy

    PASSENGERS at Southend Airport were asked to leave an easyJet plane because it was too heavy to fly. Ten travellers were offered £250 for volunteering to leave the flight to Malaga because windy conditions meant the weight of the 156-passenger

  • Olympic swimmer encourages Essex to get active

    OLYMPIC swimmer and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Mark Foster came home to Essex to launch a new fitness initiative. Get Active Essex was launched with a three-kilometre jog through Chelmsford’s Central Park and Foster, 44, was on hand

  • Mamady Sidibe extends trial with Southend United

    SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown has extended Mamady Sidibe’s trial with the Shrimpers. The former Stoke City striker has been training with Blues for the past week and also played 30 minutes in a development game against Ipswich Town on Tuesday

  • Sixth form takes shape

    AN EXPANDED sixth form centre is taking shape. The steel frame that will form the main structure of Westcliff High School for Boys’ new sixth form block has been put in place by contractors, Hutton Group. The recent expansion of the sixth form

  • Counting the cost of the flooding

    THE flooding in South Essex this summer devastated parts of the county, leaving businesses, roads, and homes in ruin. For some people, lightning has struck twice. A freakish storm in August 2013, labelled as a once in 100 years occurrence, struck

  • Updated: Man taken to hospital after five-car accident

    A MAN was taken to hospital with serious leg and neck injuries following a five-vehicle accident on the A127. The London-bound carriageway of the road at Noak Bridge was completely closed while the man was released by firefighters following the

  • Girl depends on specialist apps and device to communicate

    A THIEF stole a “lifeline” iPad from a disabled girl leaving her unable to communicate. Cerebral palsy sufferer Yazmin Woodford, 13, had just left for school when a thief walked up the disabled ramp to her house to steal the gadget which was

  • Who did pay what for war memorial?

    A ROW has broken out over who paid what to refurbish Canvey’s war memorial. The memorial to the island’s war dead was looking the worse for wear until residents and local councils stumped up the cash to spruce it up ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

  • Southend MP's anger at top public sector pay

    AN MP has condemned the “absolutely outrageous” scale of salaries paid to senior public sector officials and those with “non-jobs” at a time when cuts were being made to services. David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West, used a Commons

  • Seafront development to create more than 100 jobs

    A new development on Southend seafront will bring up to 110 jobs and signals a huge “vote of confidence” in the town, according to business leaders. Goldfield Developments Limited has put forward huge plans to build 282 flats spread over six blocks

  • Woman, 82, escapes as her home is hit by gas explosion

    AN 82-YEAR-OLD woman was rescued from her home after a gas explosion destroyed her conservatory, blew out a wall and ripped a door off its hinges. The explosion, in the kitchen of the woman’s home, in Giffords Cross Road, Corringham, is thought