A comprehensive security system which will improve the quality of life for people on a troubled estate came a step nearer to reality when the project won planning consent.

The scheme involves creating a concierge centre to control entry to three blocks of multi-storey flats on the Broadway Estate at Tilbury. The centre will be at Brisbane House but will also control access to Freemantle House and Tasmania House.

It is aimed at preventing vandals and thieves gaining entry to the high-rise blocks and bringing to an end anti-social behaviour which causes a turn-over of tenants as high as 70 per cent a year.

A consultation of tenants over the concierge scheme resulted in a 62 per cent response with every single reply in favour of the proposals.

Planning permission has also been given by Thurrock Council's development control committee for a CCTV nerve centre to be established behind the concierge unit.

Other initiatives for improving the estate have included a scheme to rid the neighbourhood of a maze of back alleyways and incorporate them into the gardens of houses.

Published Tuesday, March 12, 2002