Abbeyfield House sheltered housing scheme for retired persons in Barstable opened. Situated adjacent to Barstable Lower School at 200 Timberlog Lane on land provided by Basildon Development Corporation the accommodation consists of 9 ground floor furnished flats, a community garden and care assistance when needed. A second home called the Octagon at Bridge Street, Noak Bridge opened in the 1980s.

January

Barstable Community Centre in South Riding, opened. Built at a cost of £35,000, the facility is used for a wide variety of functions for all age groups.

April

South Mayne, town centre to Pitsea feeder road completed. The new road, costing over £1 million and (later) designated A132, is duel carriageway throughout linking the existing East Mayne and Broadmayne roundabout to a new roundabout at Pitsea with junctions for the railway station and High Road. The road, which is clearway (from 01/08/1973) in each direction with no intermediate junctions, necessitated the relocation of Pitsea market to a new site south of High Road. It was built on behalf of Basildon Development Corporation who designated it 'Road 2' on their Basildon Master Plan. Its main feature is a flyover which crosses Pitsea High Road.

18th June

29th June

The first Traffic Warden, Betty Morriss, is employed. Employed principally to work in Basildon town centre, the warden is soon joined by others where their mandate is to 'assist' the motorist rather than book the offender.

11th August

Basildon United F.C. opening game at The Stadium, their new ground at Gardiners Close (formerly Rectory Road), against a West Ham United XI. The friendly match, held on a Tuesday with a 6.30. p.m. kick off, was watched by a 3,600 crowd that included West Ham stars Jimmy Greaves and Geoff Hurst. West Ham won the game 4-0. They are also granted full senior status by the Essex FA. In August 1971 the club, along with local rivals Billericay Town became founder members of the Essex Senior League which they have since won a record five times. An additional ground feature, added in 1971, was a 100ft long prefabricated clubhouse complete with licensed bar which opened on 27th April. In the 2000s the ground's name became the Hive and United, whose nickname then was the U's and is now the Bees, can still be watched there today though there is growing uncertainty over the future of the ground due to landowner English Partnerships (now Homes and Community Agency) regeneration plans for the area. The clubs' manager at the time of the fixture was Allen Young.

10th October

Kingswood Play Centre opened. The new centre in Clay Hill Road was built at a cost of £15,600 and opened by Basildon Council's Chairman, James Lyon. It was the first permanent building built for use in the Council's Play Leadership scheme for children up to 14, with all equipment available for use free of charge. A Council run playgroup was soon established which continued through to December 2004. From January 2005 this became privately run and known as Kingswood Pre-School. There is also an enclosed outside play area within the grounds.

31st October

Century cinema in High Road, Pitsea closes. Opened as the Broadway in 1930, it became the Century on 15th February 1955 following a takeover by Granada, who following closure changed its use to bingo and renamed it Granada Social Club. It was later taken over by brewery company Bass and in 1991 renamed Gala as part of the Gala Bingo chain of clubs. In 1997 Bass sold its bingo concern and though the Gala name continued its current owner, Gala Coral, closed the club on 27th July, 2009 due to a company reorganisation that also saw other Gala clubs closed throughout the United Kingdom. The building is still a prominent feature of the Broadway though its future at present is uncertain.

5th November

Basildon Round Table hold their sixth annual Firework Fiesta and bonfire at Laindon Link, Lee Chapel North. This years fire featured a large 'guy', thought by the Basildon Round Table, to be the biggest in Essex. All the proceeds were put towards an adventure playground planned for Church Road, Fryerns near the site of Moat House School.

25th November

The parliamentary seat of Billericay is abolished and replaced by a new Basildon constituency. The new constituency seat replacing Billericay, which was created in 1950, now covers both Basildon and Billericay. It survived to 1997, the only change coming in 1983 when another Billericay seat was formed, and following another boundary change became Basildon and East Thurrock. The first general election to take place in the new Basildon seat was on 28th February, 1974 when Labour's Eric Moonman won with a resounding 10,667 majority.

December

Laindon Post Office opened. The new Crown post office located at 20 Laindon Centre was built at a cost of around £17,000. It replaces the former High Road building, itself purpose built and only open since 1952, as the eastern side of High Road between the Laindon Link junction and Northumberland Avenue was being cleared of all existing properties in preparation for the Laindon 4 housing development. Leader of Basildon Council, Councillor Geoffrey Allard, carried out the opening duties in the presence of Head Postmaster John Lacey.

16th December

The Joker public house at the new Laindon Shopping Centre is officially opened. Alan and Sheila Smithyes, formerly of Plumstead Common, are the first landlord and landlady of the Truman run pub. Charles Boniface, General Manager of the development corporation, performed the opening ceremony. The new public house with entrances off the main paved shopping centre has upper and lower split level features with the lower being known as the Harlequin bar. It closed in February 2017 and was demolished during 2019 as part of a regeneration project by the centre's owners Swan Housing.