It has been a difficult time for the city and our country recently, culminating with false rumours of disorder taking place in various locations, including Westcliff-on-Sea on Wednesday.
We have been clear that those who seek to cause trouble and disorder are not welcome in our city, or indeed across Essex. We are a diverse, welcoming, united and vibrant place. It was therefore pleasing to see Wednesday evening passing without incident here and across the county.
I want to thank police colleagues and our community safety and CCTV staff for keeping a careful and proportionate eye on events.
Essex Police and our own teams were ready for any disorder but one reason it did not materialise is because we all showed that Southend-on-Sea is united. We need to put last Tuesday behind us and get on with business as usual. Southend is safe, Southend is open for business, and Southend is welcoming.
The council and its partners are connected and focused on demonstrating to the rest of the world that Southend is getting on with business. There has been a concerted effort by some to spread disinformation and we saw that this failed earlier in the week. However, there continues to be disinformation circulating online about this issue, and many other things.
The police have asked us all to question what you see, and I fully support this message. We should all be asking who is the information from, what is their motive, and can you trust them? If not, don't listen to them.
Use the official Essex Police and council channels as your single version of the truth and base decisions on what they see and hear from us rather than from the hundreds of rumourmongers and malign or misinformed individuals who spread undue concern so rapidly in recent days. I believe that if we all do this, we will make our city an even safer place to live and work.
Cllr Daniel Cowan, Leader of the council