News in Basildon

A BASILDON man has been spared jail after magistrates who convicted him of making threatening phone calls showed leniency because of his family commitments.

Jamie Clark, 34, of Cattawade Link, made the calls to a woman and Essex Police on 8 June with the intention of causing anxiety or distress to the recipients.

DETECTIVES are no longer treating the death of a woman in Dewsgreen, Vange, as murder.

Police were called to concerns for the welfare of the woman shortly after 6.40am yesterday morning (Thursday, 4 November). They arrived and found the woman, aged in her 60s, had died.

A MAN who stabbed two other men outside a nightclub in Basildon is set to be sentenced next month.

Wagner Silva had been at Unit 7 nightclub at Festival Leisure Park when a disturbance broke out at about 4am on Saturday, 2 October. Silva was in a group of about 15 people when a fight broke out within that group.

ESSEX County Council has defended its decision to close a carriageway on a busy local road, even though the decision has infuriated motorists who have queued for up to 90 minutes to get past the scene – only to see no work has been done there since the cones went up at the beginning of the week.

The closure of the carriageway just after the Five Bells roundabout on the eastbound A13 will continue for at least another week before work begins.

ESSEX Police volunteer police officers, especially those stationed in Basildon, have been presented with The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service to mark the huge contribution they make in helping to keep our county safe.

Essex Lord-Lieutenant Jennifer Tolhurst presented the award on behalf of the Queen to Derek Hopkins MBE, Deputy Chief Officer of the Essex Police Special Constabulary, who received it on behalf of the force's 504 Specials.

THIS weekend will see the final weekend in a series of events to celebrate Wickford.

Basildon Council has been behind a number of 'Welcome Back Wickford' Saturday events in the town centre.

ENQUIRIES are underway following the death of a woman in Basildon which police are treating as murder.

Police were called to concerns for the welfare of the woman in her sixties in Dewsgreen, Vange shortly after 6.40am.

THERE has been significant traffic congestion in the east of the borough today (Thursday, 4 November) following a major crash on the A13.

It happened on the London-bound A13 between Basildon and Stanford-le-Hope.

A FAMILY has told the story of the last, precious few months of a much-loved man's life as a way of highlighting the work carried out on behalf of south Essex local communities by St Luke's Hospice.

Basildon-based St Luke's, which will launch its new hospice in Thurrock in the coming months, has just launched its annual 'Light up a Life' appeal, giving people the chance to come together to remember a loved one, while also supporting the hospice's work with a donation in their name.

A TEENAGER has been found guilty of the murder of popular dad of four James Gibbons in Basildon.

Mr Gibbons, 34, was stabbed four times outside his home in Iris Mews in Laindon, Basildon, at around 9.30pm on Sunday, 2 May. He had been holding a birthday party for his two young daughters.