Centres in Action

Essex

Chairman: Mr AC. Williams MInstTA
Secretary: (to be announced)

Notes:

Meetings held at The Marconi Club, Bee Hive Lane , Chelmsford , Essex on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

CARMEN CART MARKING CEREMONY - July 2007

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Essex Centre

Essex Centre (or Essex & North Kent as it was at first known) was formed out of London Centre in 1974 and held its first Annual General Meeting at The Cauliflower in Ilford early in 1975. On its formation the new Chairman's jewel was donated by two prominent members of London Centre, Harry Grace and Richard Wandell.

Meetings were quickly established at the Aveley management centre of Thurrock Technical College and students on transport related courses at the college became regular attenders. Many of them became members and Essex quickly became one of the larger centres in terms of membership. Thurrock College at that time attracted a large number of overseas students particularly from Nigeria and it was largely through the efforts of the Head of Transport Studies, Don Benson, that a large active Institute membership in Nigeria was formed.

During the early 1980`s the increasing number of members south of the Thames felt that they would like to form their own centre. On a number of occasions meetings had been held in Kent or south east London but attendance had never equalled that of meetings in Essex. Although Kent Centre had problems for a number of years we are delighted that it now continues to thrive with a dedicated nucleus of members one of which became National Chairman and hosting a very successful Annual Conference in 2003.

Although our membership has always been very active at national level for many years we sat in the background and let others hold the higher offices of the Institute. Don Benson, with his vast experience chaired the National Education Committee for a number of years but our first attempt to provide a National Chairman was overtaken by events when our candidate, Stan Burrows, moved to Southampton. Don eventually put us on the map by becoming our first member to hold his Conference in Essex at Stansted and since that time we have taken an increased involvement in national affairs with three of our members chairing National Committees and a number serving on them. A further Essex member, John Amos was elected to the National Chair in 1998/9 hosting his National Conference in Basildon.

Essex is a County of contrasts. In the south along the north Thames corridor it is a thriving industrial area while to the north is some of the most attractive countryside in the country.

Although these days known for producing Essex Girl and Basildon Man this image is somewhat unjustified as Essex schools have come top of the education league tables every year since they were introduced.

In the days when charcoal was used to make iron and steel this industry was centred around Thaxted but now that this industry moved to the coal producing areas the north west of the county has returned to agriculture. The north by the Suffolk border is famous as Constable Country and is also as area of great beauty. Its coastline is well known for its seaside piers with Southend on Sea and Walton on the Naze having the longest and second longest pleasure piers in the world. It also is the county having the largest number of islands within a county in England.

The County Town of Chelmsford is the home of radio, Marconi making the first radio transmission there early in this century. The Marconi Company is still one of the major employers in the area.

London’s third airport is located in the north west of the county at Stansted and has become one of the fastest growing airports in the World. With the longest runway in the United Kingdom it major strength is its capacity to accept any type or size of aircraft and plans for further runways and even faster growth are in the planning stages.

Ports have for many years been a major industry in the county with the ferry port of Harwich and the famous deep sea port of Tilbury being the largest. Tilbury is now the only deep sea port for London and is one of the largest container ports in the country. It also houses the London Cruise Terminal with cruise ships regularly arriving from all over the world.

A little down river from Tilbury is the giant oil refinery of BP Coryton which for many years with the two Shell Refineries of Thames Haven and Shell Haven formed the largest oil production area in Europe. The flames from the Coryton flare pipes can be seen from many miles away and a planned construction of a deep sea port to rival Rotterdam on the old Shell Oil sites will preserve the role of Essex as a major centre of transport.

Up river from Tilbury is Dagenham with its gigantic car manufacturing plant where Ford cars have been produced since the early 1930`s. Although no longer producing complete cars it is a major component manufacturing centre and the home of the Ford diesel engine. Essex, is of course, the home of the Ford Motor Company with its European headquarters based in Brentwood and its research and development centre at Dunton where the majority of Ford cars are designed and tested.

Essex is a vibrant and thriving county and we in the Institute Centre based here hope you will join us in keeping the counties prominence in the field of transport. Formal meetings are held on an ad hoc basis with members keep in touch with each other through various mediums to ensure that we ably represent the industry within the county.

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