THE future of the Thameside Complex in Grays remains in significant doubt as the borough council attempts to plot its way out of significant debt.

Thurrock Council needs to find hundreds of millions of pounds to pay off the cash lost in its failed 'borrow to invest' strategy. 

A paper put to members of the authority's council this week says the council needs to sell assets worth £160 million over the next eight years. 

Campaigners believe the Thameside, which contains a theatre, museum and library has been targeted by the borough's director of place as an asset that could be sold. 

And that decision has been backed by financial commissioners brought in to manage the cash-strapped council through its crisis. 

At the same meeting of the corporate overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday, 2 February the portfolio holder for Communities, Cllr Qaisar Abbas also reports on the future of arts and culture in the borough.

He speaks extensively about plans to take performing arts across the community to local venues. 

He falls short of backing the Thameside, nor does his report reflect the depth and strength of public feeling and a public campaign that has been mounted. 

Cllr Abbas has been associated in the past with Waltham International College, a London-based organisation involved in providing further education, largely to ethnic groups. 

The College has been named as a potential buyer of the Thameside building.

However, its credibility is in question, not least because of a report published by government Ofsted inspectors. 

The college has been damned as inadequate and requiring improvement and its management strategies questioned. 

An east London training company is at risk of multiple contract terminations after a damning Ofsted report found students hadn't even heard of the provider.

Inspectors visiting Waltham International College (WIC) found "too many learners whom inspectors spoke to had not heard of WIC" and a "high proportion" said they "had not studied a course at the college".

Inspectors also found apprentices without jobs.

The private training provider was founded in 2010 and provides adult education programmes for the Greater London Authority and at least one other mayoral combined authority – Liverpool City Region, as well as level three advance learner loan-funded courses and apprenticeships.

Contracts it had in place have been investigated and its financial veracity is in question. 

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, which gave WIC a contract worth nearly £3 million to use between 2019 and 2023, said: "Following the Ofsted inspection, City Hall is working with the provider to review the position and to determine next steps."

A spokesperson for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said: "As soon as we learnt of the provisional inspection results we suspended learner starts and any delivery within the Liverpool City Region."

Further Education News reported that at the time of the inspection, WIC had 113 adult learners, 77 of whom were on an English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) course, as well as 104 apprentices on qualifications such as digital marketing, care, hospitality, business and management.

On rail engineering courses, Ofsted inspectors said attendance was not good enough on the level 1 course, and on the traineeships suitable work placements were not secured which left learners lacking the opportunity to work on live tracks.

For digital marketing and junior content producer apprenticeships, Ofsted said that "leaders have not checked thoroughly that employers have suitable experience of working in these sectors," and most apprentices "do not value their training".

Furthermore, it said that for digital marketing apprenticeships, "too many apprentices are not in employment, are self-employed or undertake significant other duties at work such as being waiters in restaurants".

Inspectors said online ICT courses were not taught in sufficient detail, and "too many learners cannot recall what they have been taught."

Meanwhile a protest planned by 'Save the Thameside' campaigners who planned to lobby councillors at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, 8 February, has been delayed to Wednesday, 22 February when the full council meets because the cabinet meeting has been cancelled.