Thurrock Council: Drama group fears closure due to cutbacks

Victoria Jarmyn said the debts at Thurrock Council could "massively" impact her group

A businesswoman is worried she will have to close her performing arts group because of the local council's bleak financial situation.

Thurrock Council in Essex has debts of about £1.5bn and plans to withdraw £126,000 in funding for youth work.

JTD ARTS offers classes for children and adults including those with special educational needs.

Victoria Jarmyn said JTD had received council funding for 14 years but had not been promised anything from April.

'Life skills'

"We're a bit petrified because we don't know what's going to happen," the 37-year-old told the BBC.

"These adults have been coming here and they have relied on this service and it has helped them integrate within the community to be able to become a lot stronger within society," she said.

"To take that away has quite a lot of impact on their life skills."

Ms Jarmyn said her group also receives funding from Active Essex but was worried due to the uncertainty about whether it would still receive money from Thurrock.

JTD ARTS offers drama, dance and singing classes at the Thameside complex in Grays

(top to bottom) Courtney Lee, Esme Jarmyn-Purvis and Melanie Jane-Love all told the BBC how much they value the Thameside complex

The group is based at the Thameside theatre complex in Grays which the council has suggested could be sold after a report in 2021 said it cost £500,000 per year to operate and would cost £16m to refurbish.

Councillors are due to discuss the future of the complex at a meeting next week.

"The Thameside is basically our second home," said an emotional Esme Jarmyn-Purvis, who attends the classes.

"If the Thameside goes we don't know what we would be doing."

Ellie Lee at JTD ARTS said the Thameside theatre offered a safe space

The council said in 2021 that the Thameside complex was surplus to requirements and it could run services without the building

Ellie Lee, a 17-year-old apprentice working at JTD Arts, said: "There's been a few people I know who have actually got chased and they have run into the theatre and the security have helped them so much and resolved that problem.

"If that theatre isn't there, where's our safe space?"

Conservative council leader Mark Coxshall said on Wednesday: "We've never said that the Thameside was closing- what we've said is we need to relook at that... and saying it's wasted disposal doesn't mean we are going to lose our cultural offering."

Regarding the £8m in savings proposed for 2023-24, including the plan to stop funding for non-statutory youth work in the borough, Mr Coxshall added: "We will be making some savings but I'm not talking about severe cuts and stopping things."

About 300 protesters gathered outside the Thurrock Council meeting on Wednesday night

The council's budget for next year, including a 9.99% increase in council tax, was voted through at a full council meeting on Wednesday, despite a protest outside attended by about 300 people.

The government said it was "minded" to grant the council a £636m bailout after the debts that followed Thurrock's high-risk investments in solar energy farms.