Who's involved

The councils of Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock and Essex County have formed South Essex Councils (SEC).

Through SEC they are working to deliver improved prosperity and wellbeing in the region by:

• tackling problems that members councils can’t solve individually
• creating collective scale and impact
• providing the place leadership to promote South Essex.

Each partner council contributes resources to the SEC programmes and together they work to win new investment for the region from central government, the private sector and public partners.

The partnership began in June 2016 and signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2018. In October 2021 the seven councils agreed to form a Joint Committee.

Meetings of the SEC Joint Committee are held in public. The Joint Committee can only make decisions that impact on any one council with that council’s agreement – no powers have been transferred from the individual councils to the Joint Committee. SEC is a collaborative project and the Joint Committee is a forum for making partnership decisions and allocating pooled resources.

Leaders

• Councillor Barry Aspinell – Leader of Brentwood Borough Council
• Councillor John Mason – Leader of Rochford District Council
• Councillor Andrew Baggot - Leader of Basildon Council
• Councillor Tony Cox – Leader of Southend-on-Sea City Council
• Councillor Dave Blackwell – Leader of Castle Point Borough Council
• Councillor Kevin Bentley – Leader of Essex County Council
• Councillor Andrew Jefferies – Leader of Thurrock Council

Chief Executives

• Scott Logan – Chief Executive, Basildon Borough Council
• Jonathan Stephenson – Joint Chief Executive, Brentwood Borough Council and Rochford District Council
• Angela Hutchings – Chief Executive, Castle Point Borough Council
• Colin Ansell – Chief Executive, Southend-on-Sea City Council
• Dr Dave Smith – Chief Executive & Managing Director Commissioner, Thurrock Council
• Gavin Jones – Chief Executive, Essex County Council