THERE was a mixed reaction at the end of a remarkable day at the Thameside Complex where the borough community came together to protest against plans by Thurrock Council to close or sell off the building.

An event showcasing the community's links with the complex and Thameside Theatre was organised by the 'Save The Thameside' campaign and was backed by Grays-born international comedy star and actor Russell Brand.

He made several appearances on the stage of the Thameside Theatre during the day and interacted with the community groups who mounted displays on three floors of the complex.

During those appearances Mr Brand made calls, broadcast to the audience, to leading council figures including acting CEO Ian Wake, council leader Mark Coxshall and other leading council figures.

Russell Brand on stage.

One of the calls went to Stanford-le-Hope councillor Shane Ralph, who found himself the subject of ridicule when he clearly didn't realise who he was being called by and started to defend the council's policy over the Thameside Theatre and told the comic the theatre had a booking for big name stars 'including Russell Brand'. To his credit Cllr Ralph responded to an invitation to attend the meeting and later turned up to be interviewed.

Aside from the on-stage activities, many of the borough's community groups that have a direct or indirect connection with the complex manned stalls and welcomed visitors while talking about how they interacted with it and its services, which include Grays Library, Thurrock Museum and exhibition areas and meeting rooms as well as the theatre.

Among them were Thurrock Scouts, the Riverside Community Big Local Group, Thurrock Adult Community College, borough-based Reach Out For Mental Health and many others including local charities and small businesses.

On stage local dance groups and the Thameside Young Producers group showed off their talents.

The campaign day was clearly an upbeat success, with high spirits and unity among many campaigning groups who felt they were making many valid and worthy points that added weight to the protest and the call to hand over the building to a specially set up and locally-based community interest group with a mandate to promote local arts and culture.

However, the last session on stage with Mr Brand turned into something of a shouting match, with lewd jokes, strong language and prurient comments. So much so that a number of people left the theatre, complaining that the offensive nature of the event and the strong language used was 'not what they had bought tickets for'.

There can be no doubt Mr Brand made some strong points and he was caustic when dealing with the council's current financial catastrophe. He also highlighted the highly contentious arrival of a new bidder to take on the Thameside from Waltham International College and highlighted that organisation's links with borough communities portfolio holder Cllr Qaisar Abbas.

Cllr Qaisar Abbas (third from left) has been honoured, feted and has close links with the Waltham International College - making him a target for hard-hitting criticism from Russell Brand who reflected scepticism about how the college came to bid to take over the Thameside.

Cllr Abbas's defection from the Labour group and his appointment to the Conservative Cabinet raised many eyebrows at the time – and many more when the Waltham College bid was lodged.

Cllr Abbas has a long association with he governance of the college and has been lauded and honoured by it, drawing heavy criticism and deep concern from the council's opposition Labour group about the legality and veracity of the Waltham bid for the Thameside and Cllr Abbas's connections – which he only admitted after being put under strong public pressure by Labour at a full council meeting.

Mr Brand clearly felt Cllr Abbas was a legitimate target and he went for him, and also insulted and ridiculed many other senior Conservative councillors and council officials, making many defamatory statements about them.

He even turned his satire on those he was there to support, making sexual innuendos and jokes at the expense of some of them – mixed in with more boorish, crass and crude comments about Thurrock Council's officers and councillors.

Some might argue that it is just the comic's way and that no-one was offended, but it was clear a number of members of the local community were less than impressed and it is possible the campaign may have suffered more damage that good from the latter part of what was an otherwise productive day of community action.

Time will tell – and if clips of what was said on stage surface, legal action could also follow! There's no doubting how low the standing of Thurrock Council is, but association with some of what was said at the Thameside tonight – where staff at the theatre were clearly shocked at the turn of events – could well damage legitimate criticism of the council as well.