Council installs eight foot glass wall to ‘shield’ its councillors
A debt-ridden council has spent £24,000 erecting a glass wall at its town hall to ‘protect councillors’ from members of the public.
Thurrock Council, which declared bankruptcy in 2022, installed the eight-foot tall screen between representatives and the public gallery last month.
Residents accused the Labour-run local authority of ‘plundering’ funds for a project they said would further distance councillors from the people they serve during public meetings.
Others voiced concerns that the new double-thickness wall would worsen acoustic problems in the council chamber.
The glass screen replaced an existing waist height barrier and was erected during the summer recess by a Welsh firm.
Thurrock Council has erected a new double-thickness eight-foot glass wall to protect councillors from members of the public during meetings
A dozen seats were removed from the public gallery to make space for the new partition.
At the first council meeting following the installation, councillors on the people overview and scrutiny committee expressed concerns that members of the public would not be able to properly hear proceedings due to the new installation unless microphones were turned up.
Thurrock Council leader Councillor John Kent
The committee’s chair Councillor Neil Speight said: ‘The acoustics in this building are not great. I’ve already expressed a concern off-mic this evening about the new arrangements in the chamber which you’ve now put a big eight-foot screen between councillors and members of the public, which I daresay isn’t going to help any hearing.’
Councillors have on occasion had to face irate residents during council meetings, including one instance last year where a man stood up and delivered a tirade of abuse to representatives.
But Councillor Gary Byrne denied that councillors had asked for more protection and said that a member of the public crossing the dividing line was ‘unheard of’.
‘I have spoken to many members about this and not one of those I have spoken to says they were aware of it or had raised concerns’, he told Thurrock Nub News.
‘I can recall one instance last year when a gentleman got very irate, but I spoke to him and in the end he left the chamber. You have to manage these situations but putting up a wall isn’t the way to go about it.’
Residents vented their frustration at the new partition, with some saying the screen would block people airing their views.
One wrote on Facebook: ‘Well yet more proof that the council is not fit for purpose. Huge cut backs and job losses to come and they waste 24k.’
‘This tells me their going to implementing things that they know we’re not going to like. If the council genuinely done their jobs in the first place and assisted the people in the borough the best lives possible instead of hindering us. This wouldn’t be necessary’, another said.
Another wrote: ’24k to stop the public tax payers from saying what they feel and they source the job to a company 300miles away wow not even a local firm so shows how our money is being plundered.’
Labour won control of the Essex council in May for the first time since 2014.
Thurrock Council filed for bankruptcy in 2022. The council was taken over by Labour in May for the first time since 2014 (file photo)
It comes just weeks after the local authority accused Dubai-based tycoon Liam Kavanagh of spending £150million of its cash on his own extravagant lifestyle, after it invested hundreds of millions of pounds on a green energy scheme involving solar farms run by his firm.
A High Court lawsuit claimed Kavanagh had blown £13.7 million on a new yacht, £9.1 million on a private jet and another £20 million on a 232-acre country estate in Hampshire.
Thurrock Council spent £400million on the scheme, which racked up debts of over £1.4billion.
The court questioned the integrity of the project after it emerged that Kavanagh and his company had pocketed £5million in ‘commission’.
The council is seeking financial compensation from Kavanagh and his firm Rockfire Capital.
Kavanagh denies the allegations and said in a previous statement his application challenging the court’s jurisdiction would succeed.
A spokesperson for Thurrock Council said: ‘The security improvements to the chamber were developed in response to national and local concerns about the safety of members. The works will see the barrier between the gallery and chamber, previously 1.1m high, become 1.9m high.
‘The plans have taken some time to be implemented as the decision was taken some months ago. The leader of the council at the time, Cllr Andrew Jefferies and the leader of the opposition at the time, Cllr John Kent were briefed on the plans.
‘The decision was taken in accordance with our internal expenditure control process and was subject to several points of officer approval in line with our internal controls.’
