How was the Belhus and Ockendon Community Forum formed?
Since the demise of South Ockendon Community Forum, after fourteen years of amazing community partnership working, residents have been looking for a place to meet and discuss their thoughts and feelings about their estates.
In September 2017 some residents got together and at the Inaugural Meeting held in South Ockendon Centre, Derry Avenue, a Constitution was agreed and a Committee elected to administer the new Forum;
Who can be a member of Belhus and Ockendon Forum?
Anyone who lives in Ockendon or on the Belhus estate is eligible to join the Forum.
What does BOCF do?
BOCF champions our community in highlighting local issues that matter to local residents. It has done work on air quality, improving local roads and parking and is monitoring the proposed new link road for the Lower Thames crossing.
We regularly have a representative of the Thurrock Council highways department and local councillors at our meetings to update us on developments and to address resident’s questions.
We work with local groups and agencies to improve our local area for all our residents.
How often do we hold meeting?
We aim to hold a meeting every other month. During the pandemic we have been unable to hold ‘in person’ meetings so all our meetings have been on Zoom.
Minutes, Meetings, News and Members
Constitution for Belhus and South Ockendon
Coming Soon
Code of Conduct at Public Forum Meetings
- All members shall be open and honest in their dealings and show respect for other members
- All speakers will address themselves through the Chairperson
- Only one person shall speak at a time
- All speakers shall be polite and not raise their voices
- All speakers shall respect all others in attendance and shall not use offensive language.
- All forums observe equal opportunities and respect diversity of all community members. Racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic and discriminatory language aimed at disabled people will not be acceptable or tolerated so please do not air personal views that are likely to offend.
- All speakers will keep to the subject under discussion
- Unless there are exceptional circumstances, each person may speak only once on an issue until every other member has had the opportunity to speak thereby accounting for all opinions
- All members shall abide by the decisions taken at meetings
- If any member does not abide by the Code of Conduct, there will be a warning that if they break the Code of Conduct they may be asked to leave the meeting
- The offending member will be told that three warnings will be given and this is the first warning
- The offending member will be told that there may be two further warnings and at the third case shall ask the meeting to vote on whether the member should be asked to leave the meeting
- In the event of there being a conflict of interest (or potential conflict of interest) this must be disclosed to the meeting and if necessary, the member who has disclosed the conflict, (or potential conflict), whether financial or non-financial, shall absent themselves from the meeting whilst the subject is under discussion. Political references shall be avoided.
Thank you for taking the time to read this document