Firstly the Mayor invited all those present to reflect on and remember Thurrock’s fallen of World War One.

The Mayor reminded Members that the International Holocaust Memorial Day would be held on the 27 January 2017 at the High View Avenue Memorial Gardens in Grays and encouraged all members to attend.

The Mayor stated that the Charity Blue Light Ball would be held on the 3 March 2017 at the Civic Hall in Grays to help support our fire fighters and tickets could be purchased directly from her.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Gledhill, stated that he looked forward to responding to Councillor Spillman’s question on Gloriana and its Governance in February.

The Leader gave Members the following updates:

Clean it, Cut it, Fill it had received an increase of 40 per cent in Government Funding for pot holes and although there will never be a pot hole free Thurrock it had been encouraging that a further grant from Government may help to detect hot holes earlier by placing cameras on the front of bin lorries to identify where the pot holes were and areas that are likely to need attention.

There had been 548 Fixed Penalty Notices issued for littering and dog fouling. The Leader stated that the message was getting through and residents were becoming more aware.

The scheme appeared to be working well in the town centres but the next stage would be to address side streets.

A significant grant of £459,000 had been received to help with eight specially adopted houses for younger people with learning difficulties. This was nearly half a million pounds to help those most vulnerable to get through the care system.

3000 tonnes of salt had been scattered on the roads in preparation for the cold weather conditions and this would continue to be done as directed by the weather.

Councillor Gledhill moved onto the subject of the Thameside Complex. Councillor Gledhill stated that press reports had reported that the Thameside Theatre could potentially close before an alternative venue had been found.

Councillor Gledhill made clear that the service provided at the Thameside Complex cost the tax payer in the region of one million pounds per year. He stated that no one would expect the museum or the public library to make money but what tax payers would expect was for the Council to provide those services cost effectively so that residents got value for money and provided a service required for a 21st century Thurrock. Councillor Gledhill stated that he would expect a theatre to at least break even. He had never sugar-coated the fact that he believed this and he never would. Councillor Gledhill continued to state that there were some performances at the theatre that made a considerable amount of money, being enjoyed by thousands of residents but others only had a handful in the audience, sometimes less than ten per cent of the capacity.

The space was also used by community groups, religious groups, high house productions, the council, local dance groups. Unfortunately it still sat empty for one third of the year. Councillor Gledhill stated that he was not an expert in theatre production and was fairly sure that no other elected member was either. Councillor Gledhill stated that earlier in his administration he had agreed for an outside company to be appointed to review what was provided at the theatre now and what could be done to improve its future financial viability and what needed to be provided in the future.

Councillor Gledhill made it clear that he  had sat on two separate committees and  expressed his views on them that the theatre provision would remain in Grays to support a sustainable night time economy and that a new provision to replace and improve what the borough had should be built as part of the Grays Regeneration Programme. This was known by other members who had sat on that committee and it was a public document.  Councillor Gledhill had received a number of enquiries on this subject and had consistently made it known what he had said and what his belief was. The Thameside would not be closed until a replacement was agreed.

Councillor Gledhill said he would respond to the one aspect that had not been covered in the letter from the leader of the Labour Group. Councillor Gledhill stated that the only opposition leader that had actually taken the time to ask his intentions did not react to inaccurate press reports. Councillor Gledhill used the term theatre provision not theatre because he did not want to anticipate the outcome of any external work being undertaken on behalf of the Council which may as example come back with a recommendation for a multi-use space to maximise its use. He for one did not want to limit the possibilities for all the performing arts and community groups in Thurrock for the future. Councillor Gledhill however gave again his word that the term theatre provision and not theatre did not mean that the Council were going to assign this theatre solely to a college, an auditorium or a church hall in the middle of nowhere. Councillor Gledhill continued that the Grays Regeneration Plan had the theatre provision on it and consideration for its location in Grays would form part of that review and before any final location was identified it would come back to members as you would expect and he could not make it any clearer that Thameside would not close until there was a new theatre provision.