REVIEW and comment by Thurrock Nub News editor Neil Speight

THE BBC's Panorama programme this evening (Monday, 31 July) will have undoubtedly shocked viewers across the country as they were brought up close and personal with the financial catastrophe that has seen hundreds of millions flushed away by Thurrock Council incompetence.

However, for those of us who live locally – and myself as the journalist who first broke the story of Thurrock owing more than a billion pounds - the half hour documentary left a lot of stones unturned.

It was, in my personal view, 'underwhelming'. It told us little that those who have followed this, didn't know – despite promises it would. We previewed its broadcast on Nub News in the hope that secrets would be uncovered. They weren't.

I welcome the BBC's interest in highlighting the travesty that has befallen the people of Thurrock, who have effectively been robbed by the 'sleepwalking' incompetence of officers and councillors – while flamboyant businessman Liam Kavanagh lined his pockets with millions before fleeing the country to continue his jet set lifestyle overseas.

But, given their resources, they could have done a lot more. It was hardly the dedicated, hard-news driven Panorama of old where detail mattered. More soundbite TV!

The programme opened with the impact of the council's plight on a Thurrock schoolgirl whose home to school travel subsidy was threatened by the frugality of Thurrock Council.

It was a story exclusively broken and reported on by Thurrock Nub News in May and, as a result of our story and persistent efforts to rebut the council's attempted justification to cut her travel costs to Treetops Special School, it eventually relented and the grant was confirmed.

So the opening to the broadcast was, in substantial part, a misrepresentation itself – though the BBC did, in a throwaway line at the end of the segment, concede the money had been forthcoming.

Focus then turned on the Funky Feet dance group, who have featured on Nub News and who could be among the casualties of cuts to funding – not to mention losing their performing home at the Thameside Theatre. A cut the BBC could surely have editorialised on rather than milking the easy emotional features.

Clearly the bulk of the programme was aimed at highlighting the great work of Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporter Gareth Davies, who has spent hundreds of painstaking hours analysing data and uncovering untruths. He was featured extensively and thoroughly deserves his day in the limelight, but also a great many of his previous questions were also unanswered.

The programme focussed on the influence of dodgy dealer Mr Kavanagh, and it certainly makes good short, sharp soundbite TV. But his company was not the only one where council cash was squandered.

What about Chip Chip, Pure World Energy, Just Loans PLC or Shard Investments – companies which have also rinsed Thurrock of tens of millions of pounds?

And staggeringly, the programme managed to edit the role of much-damned CEO Lyn Carpenter from history – despite the fact that the government and commissioners who have probed the council's affairs have thoroughly castigated her management of the authority.

No mention too of former council leader Rob Gledhill who sleepwalked through the catastrophe alongside his finance portfolio holder Shane Hebb – another to escape any mention.

To his credit, Labour leader Cllr John Kent faced up to the cameras and admitted that all the councillors who served during the financial melt down shared the responsibility for it. But, other than a brief written statement from current Tory leader Cllr Andrew Jefferies, there was a complete no-show from the Tories, who shoulder most of the blame.

Which leaves the top scapegoat – and, who knows, the architect of the disaster, Sean Clark. It seems to me he is a man hung out to dry by former colleagues.

He was doorstepped and followed by Panorama report Bronagh Munro, an ex-police officer who certainly has the investigative ability to get her teeth firmly into the real story.

She tried to get Mr Clark to speak – but to no avail.

And that's the real issue. No-one has! In the public domain at least.

The people of Thurrock deserve some real answers.

The government's own Best Value Investigation report into the whole debacle is detailed but it is largely a historical analysis, it doesn't show any teeth.

We have no idea whether a police inquiry will follow – it should.

But local Tories are determined they don't want a full public enquiry- and rejected an opposition call for one last week.

It all stinks to high heaven and the stench remains.

A half hour TV report was not going to summarise everything, but we hoped for something new. Most of what was said had already been highlighted in the dozens of Nub News stories over the past three years plus countless stories elsewhere, including the excellent work of Mr Davies for the Bureau. He summarises the whole borrow to invest scenario here.

A petition has been launched calling for a full public enquiry. Maybe, just, maybe – after tonight's Panorama spotlight – even if it was not as searing as it might have been – there will be renewed impetus for that. If you would like to sign up, you can find it here.

And if you haven't seen Panorama tonight – catch it on BBC iPlayer here.