LAST week, the High Court again dismissed a judicial review of the Council’s Selective Licensing Scheme and, after a hearing, ruled that the Council’s scheme was lawful. The decision in March allowed the Council to start to implement the Scheme. Selective Licensing is designed to improve housing standards in the borough’s private rented sector and ensure safer, better-quality housing for tenants. Under the Scheme, all private landlords operating within the designated areas listed below are required to obtain a licence to let their properties. The Thurrock wards covered by the scheme are Aveley and Uplands, Belhus, Chadwell St Mary, Chafford and North Stifford, Corringham and Fobbing, East Tilbury, Grays Riverside, Grays Thurrock, Little Thurrock Rectory, Ockendon, South Chafford, Stanford East and Corringham Town, Stanford-le-Hope West, Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park, Tilbury St Chads, and West Thurrock and South Stifford.