A mobile portakabin for use as a police office is placed in Town Square, Basildon. The portakabin, painted blue and positioned adjacent to the town clock, served as an additional crime reporting office amongst other uses. It was later moved to a new location adjacent to the East Square steps where it remained until the mid 2000s when it was removed from Town Square.

March

Bulk D.I.Y & Builders Superstores Limited open a retail outlet at Hazelmere, off High Road, Pitsea. The new purpose built store and car park was built over previously residential land and shops that fronted the High Road as well as land off the former Pollard Road. British judo sportsman and 1972 Olympic Games bronze medallist Brian Jacks performed the opening ceremony duties. It was later taken over by another D.I.Y chain Texas Homecare who would sell out in 1995 to the Sainsbury's own Homebase branding, who ran it until 2009. It then became a 'Go Outdoors' store specialising in camping and climbing equipment and outdoor clothing. The store has since been taken over by discount retailer B&M, who opened in March 2022.

6th April

Carreras Rothmans close their cigarette production factory in Christopher Martin Road. The company's factory, which opened in 1959, employed over twelve hundred people on a large site at the No.1 industrial estate at Nevendon. Production was moved to their Durham factory in McMullen Road, Darlington, which had opened in 1976. At its peak the company had a workforce of over two thousand but since 1981 around 1,000 had already taken voluntary redundancy. The company also also ran a sports and social club in Nevendon Road which was later sold along with a large sports field to become a new Sainsbury's superstore. The main six storey office block with its two large clocks mounted to the left and right side of the sixth floor outer walls, was later renamed Phoenix House and occupied by the N.H.S. and other businesses, although the two clocks have since been removed sometime during the 2010s. Some of the brands associated with the company included Black Cat, Rothmans king size, Craven "A", Piccadilly, Peter Stuyvesant, and Guards.

14th April

Wat Tyler Country Park in Pitsea opened by the Rt. Hon. General Secretary of the T.U.C. Len Murray. The 125 acre park at Marsh Road (since renamed Wat Tyler Way and now Pitsea Hall Lane), was named after the 1381 Peasants' Revolt leader Walter "Wat" Tyler. Sometime during 1993 in what some quarters described as a political move the Conservative led Council renamed it Pitsea Hall Country Park, though this proved short-lived as from around 1997 it had reverted back to its original name. It had previously been part of the Pitsea Hall estate and used as farmland for much of the 19th century. In 1891 an explosives company called the British Explosives Syndicate leased the land and various buildings were erected for the purpose of manufacturing and storing their products. The Nobel Explosive Company then took over the concern through to around 1919 when the site effectively closed. In the 1920s the War Department became the new owners, later establishing a Sea Transport Depot. Various new buildings were built including pill boxes during the Second World War which still exist today. In 1969 Basildon Council purchased the site and following a period of industrial use the land became derelict and was then transformed by the council during the early 1980s.

May

A plotland museum is established at Dunton in a property saved from demolition by Basildon Development Corporation. The detached bungalow in Third Avenue, known as The Haven, was built in the 1930s and is the only property to be spared demolition in a formerly residential area re-designated as 'open space' and now part of a nature trail. Corporation chairman, Dame Elizabeth Coker, D.B.E., D.L., carried out the opening ceremony. The Haven had been the property of the Mills family who purchased the plot on the Dunton Hills Estate for £40 in 1933. It was intended to be a summer or weekend home but eventually the family moved in permanently, even buying another plot on the opposite side of Third Avenue. Around £2000 was spent preparing the museum for opening, which would be restricted to Sundays only and mainly during the summer season. Admission was set at 50p.

May

The Liberty Shopping Hall in Great Oaks, Basildon town centre officially opened. The 32,000 sq ft indoor arcade, housed in the former Tesco supermarket, had around 70 shops offering a wide range of retail goods. It closed in the 1990s and is now a QD store. T.V. celebrity Henry Kelly, from London Weekend Television's "Game for a laugh" show, performed the opening duties. The name Liberty Hall originates from a former residential property, long since demolished, that stood in Hotwater Lane, which once ran on or near the Great Oaks location.

2nd May

Labour party leader Neil Kinnock (later Lord Kinnock) makes a whistle stop visit to Pitsea. The visit, which was timed to coincide with the local council elections held the following day, took place at Wat Tyler Country Park where he was taken on a guided tour and introduced to a group of schoolchildren from Felmore Primary School, who were on a day trip there.

June

The final dwellings built on behalf of Basildon Development Corporation are completed at Felmores in Pitsea. These were 37 sheltered accommodation dwellings for the elderly in Phase II of the Felmores 16 scheme. Over the period of 34 years the development corporation were responsible for the construction of 24,839 dwellings of various types.

June

Tanqueray Gordon's gin bottling plant on the Southfield's Industrial Estate in Laindon opened. Built at a cost of £48 million the new purpose built distillery and five storey office block occupies a 26 acre site at Fenton Way off West Mayne in Laindon. The company, which markets its product in distinctive green bottles, was previously based at Goswell Road, Clerkenwell, London. Work on the site, which was built in part over the former unmade up western end of Victoria Road, began in 1982 with the main building contract being awarded to John Laing Construction. In 1998, after only 14 years in Laindon, the company began a closure programme to relocate to Scotland to a new distillery at Cameron Bridge, Leven, in Fife. This move was completed by 2000. A later company product, Tanqueray No.10 introduced in 2000 to mark ten years at the former Basildon site, is still available today.

22nd July

A Basildon Marathon is held. The 26 miles and 385 yards race was held to raise money for disabled athletes and run under AAA and WCAAA laws. It involved a two lap course starting in Cranes Farm Road taking in St. Nicholas Lane, High Road, Laindon, Laindon Link, Great Knightleys, Southernhay, Clay Hill Road, High Road, Vange, London Road, Pitsea, Pound Lane, Burnt Mills Road, Whitmore Way, Ghyllgrove, Cranes Farm Road and finishing at the Gloucester Park athletics track. It was promoted by Basildon Athletic Club, Basildon Sports Council and the local council. 141 people entered the event of which 108 finished and runners included future world champion boxer Terry Marsh, who finished 18th. The race was won by David Cox from Woodford Green in a time of 2:28:36.

24th August

The Knares on the Lee Chapel South estate is closed to right turns either into or out of its junction with Nether Mayne. The District of Basildon (The Knares/Nether Mayne, Basildon) (Prohibition of Right Turns) Order 1984.