THURROCK Council has refused to make public the reasons why it has rejected the opportunity to pass management of the Thameside complex in Grays to the local community.

Over recent years the future of the complex on Orsett Road, which includes the Thameside Theatre, has been shrouded in doubt with Thurrock Council indicating it wanted to shut the venue down.

A determined campaign by local activists fought that proposition and a community-driven alliance of businesses and the voluntary sector presented a business plan to take over the venue.

The council has spent £45,000 on drawing up an independent appraisal of the options before it. The appraisal was completed by Montagu-Evans, a commercial planning, historic environment and townscape team.

Council insiders, who have had sight of parts of its report, say it favoured the council disposing of the asset to the local bid.

The report was scheduled to be brought before the council's cabinet earlier this year. It was initially expected in the spring but didn't materialise. Then it was promised for later in the year and ultimately further pushed back to be on the agenda for September's cabinet meeting.

It didn't appear, as reported by Thurrock Nub News, and there appears little chance of it seeing the light of day now as the council has deemed the report 'prejudices its own commercial interests and the commercial interests of the other parties involved.'

That was disclosed in publication of a Freedom of Information request. 

When Labour won control of the council last year, it was widely expected that the council would have a more sympathetic view on saving the theatre and handing it over to the community.

However, depite the council leader Cllr Lynn Worrell claiming to be a passionate supporter of the Thameside and leading criticism of predecessor Conservatives who wanted to close it, Labour has also disappointed campaigners.

The official silence from the council on the issue has now been broken with the authority refusing to publish the options report – but being forced to admit how much it spent on it – money that appears now to have been effectively wasted.

Local campaigners are now beginning to doubt the veracity of the commitment to keep the theatre alive and the future of the complex. which also includes Grays Library and Thurrock Museum, secure. The council have been accused of 'kicking the issue into the long grass' so nobody has to make a decision before the council is abolished - which is likely to happen with three years under local government reorganisation.

The Thameside will then come under ownership of a much wider authority, whose component councils already run local theatres.

In its Freedom of Information response, the council says: "The total cost of the Thameside Options Appraisal work commissioned from Montagu Evans was £45k. The report contains commercially sensitive and confidential information therefore it is exempt and withheld from publication.

"Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).

"The Council are of the view that the release of the information would prejudice its own commercial interests and the commercial interests of the other parties involved.

"The reasons for this have been captured below under the public interest test section.

"It would inform the public of the activities carried out on their behalf and to scrutinise public monies spent:- The council says

• Disclosure of information would result in other companies that offer similar investments not wanting to work with the Council due to commercially sensitive information being released by the Council with regards to prior investments. This will have a negative impact on the Councils ability to seek suitable investment deals going forward.
• Disclosure of information would have a detrimental impact on the commercial interests of the other parties involved, as this would publicly detail commercially sensitive information. This would damage the Investor's competitive position.
• Disclosure of information would negatively impact the Councils working relationships with its lenders. This will reduce the spend the Council has (commercial interests), which would directly impact the services we are able to provide to our residents.
• Disclosure of information would negatively impact the Council's reputation due to loss of investor confidence in the council.

And adds: "Based on the above, it is the Council's view that there is a stronger public interest to engage the exemption. The key reasons for this is as follows:

• The public would only be interested in this information if their service provision were to reduce and/or stop completely.
• All the time the Council are able to maximise its funds in this way and maintain its service provision, there is no strong public interest in favour of disclosure of this level of detail."