THURROCK Council's new leader has spoken of the problems of the debt-ridden authority and says he still believes it has a future – though he acknowledges there is a mountain to climb and the very real possibility exists that the council could yet go under.

And Cllr Mark Coxshall acknowledges that failures by the past six years of Conservative administration will probably leave generations of borough families with a financial burden to help pay back.

Cllr Coxshall was elected to office at last week's meeting of the full council, following on from a short spell at the reins as interim leader following the resignation of his predecessor Cllr Rob Gledhill when the appalling state of the council's finances and the consequences of its controversial and flawed 'borrow to invest policy' finally came into the open at the end of September.

During his time as interim head of the council Cllr Coxshall promised a new era of openness, transparency and honesty.

Now he is in charge he says he must step up to the plate and deliver – not just on truthfulness, but on a plan for recovery and a way to circumvent a £1.5 billion debt that the council has built up. That entails working with commissioners from Essex County Council, put in charge of rooting out the true state of the council's financial position after government intervention.

They are also challenged with coming up with a 'best value report' which should pull the curtain back on all the secretive dealings over recent years.

Interviewed after confirmation of his appointment he spoke about the debt – and what is left of the investments the council made into companies that have gone bust, are in administration or are facing collapse, saying: "There's an overall debt of around £1.5 billion, that's including all borrowing over the last 30 years of this council.

"We still don't know what we can get back from our investments. At the moment we don't know how much those investments are worth. We have got a valuation of how much they are theoretically worth but is that a truthful valuation of what they are really worth?

"There is a serious crisis here, otherwise there wouldn't be an intervention, and I want to be honest and when I say 'that's the exact figure', that's the figure we are going to stick to and it won't change."

Cllr Coxshall admitted that it could take 30 to 40 years to pay off the debt, or possibly longer. The council has been given a short, though expensive stay of execution from going bust by the promise of government loans of more than £600 million, but they are only intermediary and the council and commissioner have to plot a long term survival path.

He said: "Every eventually is being looked at, we can't ignore any eventualities. In this situation everything is looked at. We look at our asset list, we look at housing, we look at our services and we look at the length of the loans.

"The government can normally only give 25 year loans but every possibility can be looked at.

He acknowledged that, as a borough resident, his children and his grandchildren could have to pay the money back over time though restrained council budgets and possible increases in local taxation. He said: "I don't want to see that, but we have to see that the council survives and thrives here.,

Cllr Coxshall said it wasn't just the flawed investments that were likely to cause problems, rising operational costs and a reduction in government funding pointed to major disparities in revenue and expenditure by the end of the decade.

"This council is in a serious financial situation. It was always there, and this is why the investments were chosen to supplement our income."

For the first time in public, Cllr Coxshall also showed some contrition, saying: "I am sorry, as is every councillor from this area. It's a terrible situation. Every councillor lives in the borough and we should be here to challenge the officers it's still our job to get us out of this and do the job here. Then the people of Thurrock can make their decisions at the next election of what went wrong here.

"If they want someone else they can have someone else running this council. That is their democratic right.

"I say sorry day in, day out to the members about what's happened here. Now let's find out what's happened via the best value inspection and the recovery plan."

Asked if he thought the council would still be in existence in ten years' time, he said: "That is up to the secretary of state and the Essex County Council commissioners. The commissioners will decide what the future is.

"There could be a future; there could be no future for Thurrock if the debt is so large that it's unsustainable. Why should the residents of Thurrock carry on with that?

"It's that serious. We have got talk about 'where do we go from here'

"There wouldn't have been an intervention unless that was on the table. There's nothing off the table at the moment with the commissioners but I am confident we can make a recovery plan and I am confident that we can deliver something."

Yesterday (Wednesday, 19 October) it was announced that Thurrock Council had lost a third bid to quash bids to publicise where and when it spent its borrowed hundred of millions.