ON a long night of bitter recrimination and rampant party politicking played out on a dysfunctional and badly performing video platform the already tarnished reputation of Thurrock Council was hardly improved last evening (Wednesday, 8 July).

An extraordinary meeting of the council, called by Labour in the wake of news that the authority had borrowed more than one billion pounds to fund a controversial money-making investments policy, saw accusations and name-calling fly left, right and centre as the opposition got something of a bloody nose as they were roundly criticised by the ruling Conservative group.

And the recrimination from the Conservatives swiftly followed as, in the subsequent full meeting of the council Labour were stripped of the chairmanship of severalof the authority's overview and scrutiny committees – the supposed check mechanism to ensure fair play, accountability and balance on the council.

And some of those chairs, which come with a special responsibility allowance of £6,500 were handed to defectors from the Independent group who have recently joined the Conservative group – giving it the majority required to ram through any policies it feels like.

Ironically one of those new chairs is the former Independent group leader Cllr Luke Spillman who gave Labour a vehement tongue-lashing during the extraordinary meeting.

Two years ago Cllr Spillman – who last year announced he would be quitting the council but was granted a year's extension as no elections were held because of coronavirus - had expressed his contempt for the system of governance in May 2018 when he said: ""Big politics has ganged up to stamp on the local Thurrock Independents. While we are passionate about helping the local community, the other parties are only interested in their own self interests."

Critics may wonder where he now sits on 'self-interest and big politics' as he pockets a few extra thousand pounds for doing a job he said he didn't want only a few short months ago.

The extra ordinary meeting featured a briefing on the 'investment briefing'. Thurrock Nub News first broke news of the council's massive borrowing programme in January this year and subsequently the Financial Times and Bureau of Investigative Journalism laid bare all its ramifications in a damning article.

That national media exposure focused Labour's attention with its group leader Cllr John Kent leading criticism of the council and slamming the Conservative group for its poly of secrecy and a lack of transparency.

Over recent years the council's record on transparency and honesty has been widely reported in both the national and regional and press, with Chief executive Lyn Carpenter's penchant for control and secrecy branded as a contempt for democracy. Local and national media have frequently been ignored as they try to cover the process of democracy in Thurrock – with Ms Carpenter earning the 'Kim Jong Un' award in Private Eye's annual Rotten Borough awards for her 'instinct for secrecy.

And the council's unremitting quest to thwart coverage and distort the truth was exemplified in the first couple of paragraphs in its rebuttal of Cllr Kent complaint.

In the first paragraph the report says: "On 22 May 2020, the Financial Times published a story on Thurrock Council's investments and borrowing position. Whilst the FT asked a number of questions, the council was not given sight of the article or the right to respond before publication and it therefore did not fully reflect the council's investment approach since 2014.

In the third paragraph the report says: "Whilst we do not recognise the concerns set out within the article – and all questions from the reporters were responded to in the lead up to the publication of the article – this report sets out a formal response to the key themes included within the article.

So within the space of three paragraphs the report, in the name of finance portfolio holder Cllr Shane Hebb and the Director of Finance, Sean Clark appears to contradict itself.

Thurrock Nub News challenged the council on this – only to be told: "A number of questions were asked of Thurrock Council for a number of months leading to the publication of the article, which were answered. The council received notification of the publication of the article on the 21st May 2020, which gave 24 hours' notice. That notification did not enclose the article that was published – it gave a brief summary of some of the key points that would be reported."

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the FT refute this and a statement from the Bureau says: "We engaged with the council repeatedly through the process of this story. We interviewed Finance Director Mr Sean Clark but also approached the council with questions several times through the reporting and then with official opportunities to respond to the main points in the piece."

So with the truth hidden in plain sight, last night's meeting began with Finance portfolio holder Cllr Shane Hebb outlining the council's position – though sections of his speech could not be heard as technology on the 'virtual meeting' failed - much to the annoyance of councillors participating online who could be heard and seen shouting at their screens and waving their hands in frustration.

What Cllr Hebb said did included a comment that everyone on the council was aware of and had supported a 'borrowing envelope of up to £2 billion. He emphasised the following: "That's two billion with a B that everyone in this chamber voted for, including the Labour party."

He went on: "It is evident that, as the saying goes, Labour as an entity are very much in this. By trying to distance and selectively record history he attempts to show fury here. The opposition, or rather some Labour leaders, have been involved in great detail. Some haven't they chose not to engage. Decisions are made by those that attend.

"Back in 2019 Labour supported the process, but not 2012 when they smelled politics.

"Has the strategy been transparent? Yes, quite clearly the hypocrisy is clear. Is there integrity with what we are doing? Yes. Is it ethical? Yes."

As Cllr Hebb sat down, the Conservative group released a message direct to the local press which said: "On Wednesday, it was confirmed that former Labour Leader and Deputy Leader – Cllr's Gerrish and Rice - along with Conservative and then-UKIP leaders and deputies – were fully involved in the formation of investment strategy and borrowing in October 2017. Councillors of all political parties voted to support that approach in 2017, and again in 2018 and 2019.

"Thurrock Council Deputy Leader, Cllr Shane Hebb said: "So successful the approach was, that opposition members claimed credit for, only in February 2019 – the current Leader of the Opposition said: "The idea of using borrowing to make sensible investments with one of the previous Labour administration. I am glad that the current administration has continued with that policy".

"Interestingly, the Leader of the Opposition was recently quoted as saying that "people needed to be aware that Thurrock had borrowed £1bn - that's billion, with a b".

"The same individual, in the same discussion where he claimed credit, along with his party, voted for a borrowing envelope of not £1bn - but £2bn.

"That's £2bn – with a "b!"

"What the Leader of the Opposition also forgets to tell, is that out of all the meetings he was asked to attend while he was Labour leader, he attended just one out of eleven.

"Thurrock Council Leader, Cllr Rob Gledhill said: "In 2016, this three-party split borough was left to confront a £30m deficit left by the former administration.

"Our investments have earned us £34m worth of income per year, which enable extra police, weekly bin collections, grass cutting, pothole filling and much more, as opposed to tens of millions of additional cuts.

"Tonight has shown the approach has been transparent, is ethical, and has withstood the COVID-19 crisis, and leaves us with 131% more reserves than Labour left, to help us weather the coming economic storm."

Back in the chamber Cllr Kent then rose to speak. He said: "I think it is important that all 49 councillors have the opportunity to take part in a debate and to have a look at the borrowing an investment strategy that has been carried out by the administration."

He had barely got started before, as with Cllr Hebb, the transmission was lost.

When it returned and watchers could hear Cllr Kent again, he said that in 2018 the administration exceeded the agreed borrowing limits by over £100 million without following the rules and getting that signed off in advance.

He continued: "I have to be absolutely clear, and Cllr Hebb has been good enough to say it, I am not against taking advantage of historically low interest rates in order to borrow to invest to generate returns that might help to protect us against some of the impacts of austerity.

"It's something we did and it's something that I welcome being continued. But it can't be allowed to go unfettered, there have to be controls.

"There has been a lack of openness and a lack of transparency from start to finish.

"We have heard a lot about the council's spending review, which is an informal meeting. It's not a constitutional meeting, It's not a decision-making meeting. It's not a meeting held in public, you can't access its minutes.

"We need these decisions to be made much more publicly.

"And despite assurances from cabinet the draft accounts for last year show that the council invested a further £113 million with no consultation with opposition leaders, no opportunity for democratic or public scrutiny of that decision.

"On 12 February cabinet agreed options to come forward and increase democratic oversight of investments. We are still waiting for their proposals of what that democratic oversight might look like.

"The cabinet said they would report regularly but at the last cabinet meeting, the first for three months, there wasn't a finance report at all. And yet we find, in the report we have before us this evening that in that time cabinet borrowed a further £100 million. Why was that further £100 million not reported to cabinet.

"If we hadn't asked for this meeting this evening, we still wouldn't know about that.

"A second area of concern is a debt that is growing at a frightening rate In March 2016 council debt stood at £335 million, today it's £1.4 billion and programmed to go up to £2.2 billion by 2023.

"That will be an increase of 520 per cent. Thurrock's spending power is £123 million so we are borrowing over 11 times our income - that will be rising to 17 times our income.

"We have serious concerns as to whether that is actually sustainable. While borrowing and lending to other authorities has always been seen as secure, this market is tightening, particularly as a result of Covid. And the consequences of that tightening could be really severe for this authority.

"I have concerns that 80 per cent of our investments are in one sector and it is not clear how that investment is spread against different products within that sector. The risk should be spread,. It would appear we have too many eggs in one basket.

"Then there is the perpetual cycle of debt. At the moment cabinet is only servicing that huge 1.2 billion debt by borrowing from other public bodies. It would appear that we have borrowed from 150 other authorities in the last three years, borrowing from one authority to pay back the last. "We are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and at some point the music will stop and that debt will have to be repaid.

"So what is the exit strategy?

"One is to go to a lender and borrow the whole billion and repay it over a number of years. The second is to cash in those bonds and the danger of cashing in those bonds is you may not get what you hoped for. .

"My concerns are about transparency and the scale of the debts. They are about investments being too narrowly focused, the perpetual cycle of debt and linked to that the lack of a clear exit strategy."

Following Cllr Kent's speech, many councillors Conservative and Labour – with the odd independent voice – joined in the debate.

Many comments were full of rancor and vitriol. It was not the most edifying of evenings but it can be viewed in full (with the odd technical interruption) here.

At the end of the name-calling and criticism and counter criticism the report put before the council was 'noted'.

Effectively nothing had changed but everyone had a good old-fashioned shouting match! However, later in the meeting, there was significant change.

Several key Labour councllors were summarily removed from the chair of committees in an announcement by council leader Rob Gledhill.

Only on Monday evening, Labour's Cllr Martin Kerin had led from the front as he chaired the council's planning transport scrutiny committee – ripping into the tens of millions of pounds overspend on the A13 and the debacle of Stanford-le-Hope rail station. He has now been removed from the chair and replaced by independent member Cllr John Allen.

Labour councillor Lyn Worrall, a frequent critic of the council's housing strategy and particularly the recent controversial 'list of social housing sites that has left the council somewhat red-faced - has been chopped from chairmanship of the housing scrutiny committee and replaced by Tory defector Cllr Spillman, and Cllr Shane Ralph is another Tory defector to be rewarded with a chairmanship. He takes over the health scrutiny committee.

And Cllr Kent also got removed from the cleaner greener and safer overview committee – to be replaced by young Tory councillor Alex Anderson.

It all seemed a far cry from a previous evening in the chamber a couple of years ago when the Conservatives regained control of the council and Cllr Gledhill proudly boasted his party would not stoop to party politicking and pledged that unlike his Labour predecessors he would preside order an authority where scrutiny and oversight would be transparent and beyond personal party promotions – saying opposition councillors would hold the chairs.

He said: "For years Labour have been able to make decisions and scrutinise them, effectively checking their own homework. We will not do that."