THURROCK councillors can expect to be lobbied by a vociferous but peaceful crowd of parents, children, theatre group members and other residents campaigning to save the Thameside Theatre when they attend tonight's (Wednesday, 24 November) meeting of the full council.

Because of continued problems with electrics in the Civic Offices on New Road in Grays, which the council continues to decline to comment on or give an explanation for the delay the meeting will be held at the adjacent South Essex College.

It is scheduled to start at 6pm in the collegues auditorium and will be open to members of the public - though there is likely to be a restriction on numbers allowed in the building.

Councillors will have to walk the gauntlet of campaigners who will be gathering at 5pm.

Organisers of the protest insist it will be peaceful - but the council have drafted in a range of additional security measures and say police will also be present.

Two meetings of the council will be held tonight, September's agenda being dealt with first and then November's agenda will follow. No meeting was held in October meaning that today's meetings, the final one of 2021, will mean that just seven full meetings will be held in the calendar year - one of which in June was abandoned soon after it started because of technical difficulties.

The council's capacity to manage its affairs and host meetings has long been a subject of ridicule, following on from the shambolic abandonment of another full council meeting last November and its inability to master technology that even small parish councils have embraced - not get a leak in its offices fixed three months after it happened.