2022 has been a year of contrasting fortunes for the councils of Essex. The murder of Sir David Amess MP led to his constituency, Southend-on-Sea, being awarded ‘city status’ as a tribute to his memory, fulfilling his long-held dream. It joined Chelmsford, which became a city as part of the 2012 Golden Jubilee celebrations, and both were joined this spring by Colchester, which was made a city to mark the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Having gained three cities since the millennium, Essex began 2022 with a county council and two unitary authorities: Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. By the start of 2023, only one of those unitary authorities was fully functioning.
Thurrock’s fall from grace
Thurrock Council has fallen from grace at an awkward time, given the strain on local authority finances. Just this month, Lyn Carpenter, the chief executive of Thurrock Council, has resigned. Her departure, with immediate effect, came after the council was forced to issue a ‘financial distress warning’. It came after the council declared a hole in its budget of £500mn, following ruinous business deals. The notice prevents the council making any new spending commitments except for statutory or essential services.
In September 2022 Essex County Council, under instruction from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, initiated a ‘best value inspection’ of the finances at Thurrock. As a result, the leader of Thurrock Council, Rob Gledhill, resigned.
The new leader is Mark Coxshall, partner of Thurrock’s MP Jackie Doyle-Price (although this fact is not mentioned in his Register of interests entry).
Sean Clark, the financial director of Thurrock, was suspended on full pay. On 6 December, Essex Police offered ‘assistance’ although no formal criminal investigation is, as yet, underway.
Unwise investments
As previously reported by East Anglia Bylines and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the issues at Thurrock stem from a series of investments authorised by Clark which took place behind closed doors, without proper due diligence, and with weak safeguard and security arrangements.
Other reports indicate that as early as 2018 a number of outside organisations raised concerns not only about the risks of the investments, but also the size of the sums invested. The finance team allegedly joked that their boss was “off to see the City boys to play with our money”.
The money invested in various schemes, such as solar farms, came from loans from other local authorities.
In October 2022 it was announced that Thurrock Council would need to borrow £836mn to repay the debt it had incurred.
Watchdog not watching
What is remarkable is that all of the above investments took place under the noses of the Counter Fraud & Investigation Department (CFID) in Thurrock, a combined service with Southend-on-Sea, which had been formed in 2013 and which lasted until 2019.
The department was formed specifically to safeguard council finances. The team could use intrusive surveillance powers, allowed under counter-terrorist legislation, to observe the staff or residents of another local authority, without the oversight or knowledge of that authority. In 2019, in an admission that led to the partnership being dissolved, John Williams, the head of Southend’s legal and democratic services, said that the counter fraud team had used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) on behalf of the council “three or four times”.
Yet despite all of those powers, the warnings from other agencies, the alleged banter in the office, and the near reckless regard for governance, it appears that the Counter Fraud & Investigation Department, originally from both Southend and Thurrock and then Thurrock alone, missed every warning sign.
Essex County Council is continuing its inspection. There is little doubt that 2023 will bring further pressure on agencies in Thurrock as the council tries to balance the books. Perhaps it will also be a year that brings answers.
