Thurrock LINK has been lauded over the last few years for its work in defending the rights of the vulnerable in the borough.

But according to reports, they were frog-marched out of their offices in the Queensgate centre, Grays on friday afternoon.

Infact, when YT went to their offices, it was like the Marie Celeste with the door wide open and computers and other materials all on open display.

A YT reporter then alerted a nearby police officer to secure the premises.

But on further investigation it appears that there has been concerns for some time over the parent company’s financial health. The parent company was, the Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisation (CEMVO).

They had been running for over ten years.Last year they received a large contract to finance the work of Link.

However, according to a source, Link were concerned that there was a large large underspend to the tune of tens of thousands.

With so many pressing needs in the borough, Link became concerned. They became even more concerned when their internet bill wasn’t paid and even more so when wages did not come through.

A large meeting was held among health care professionals and matters were passed to Thurrock Council.

A source said: “With every penny being so tight and voluntary groups pleading for money, the council were advised that they should be careful giving money to a company that looked as if they were in trouble.”

YT understands that government grants to CEMVO and thus, LINK are distributed through the council.

The council has responded to a number of questions.

A spokesperson said: “Thurrock LINk have not been evicted.

“Potential issues with Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations Ltd (CEMVO) were first raised late in 2011 and the council acted upon them, meeting with senior executives (in an unannounced visit) and receiving certain assurances. Evidence to back these up was also requested.

“Wages were paid, although once last year they were late. January’s pay was on time.

“Thurrock LINk is not homeless. CEMVO informed the council on 27 January that they had appointed liquidators but because the council had already prepared for this eventuality there is an agreement with CVS that the organisation can operate out of the Beehive.

“The LINk had underspent in previous years and that trend appeared to be continuing when the council last held a contract meeting on 29 November.

“Thurrock LINk, already noted as one of the most progressive in the country, and Thurrock Council, can work together and plan proactively to overcome potential difficulties.

“Any organisation or charity can run into difficulty especially in these austere times. Thurrock’s voluntary sector have been of significant support to the LINk during this challenging period to ensure the continuation of its function within Thurrock.”

A spokesperson for Thurrock LINK was unavailable for comment.

CEMVO’s offices in Stratford are closed, the website and phones are down.

Orsett Conservative councillor, Mike Revell challenged education bosses at Thurrock Council last week over the low numbers of students going to top universities. In 2009-10, no Thurrock student went up to either Oxford or Cambridge and all other stats see Thurrock languishing near the bottom of the league.

The council revealed that of the 520 Palmer’s College students that went to university last year, only 6% went to the Russell group of universities (Edinburgh, Durham, LSE, Exeter, York etc.).

But principal Vinall has written to YT to put their side of the story.

Mr Vinall said: “In this case I feel the young people of Palmer’s have been done a disservice.

We are proud of every student we send to university. For many they will be the first in their family to progress to HE. Whether they progress to Oxford or Cambridge, to a Russell Group university or the one up the road, it is the progression to a potentially life changing educational experience that we celebrate and we must never make those who do not go to the Russell Group feel in any way inadequate. They have not failed and nor has Palmer’s.

It is also worth noting that for many of our students the Russell Group is an inappropriate measure as the top university choice for their chosen subject is not a Russell Group university at all. If we compare the Guardian league tables, for subjects such as Media, Film, some Business courses, Nursing and even Veterinary Science and Dentistry, many or most of the top choices are not in the Russell Group at all.

Also, some of our finest universities are not in the self-selecting Russell Group. To take an example which is clearly not at random, when one of our ex-Grays School students got 39 points on the IB (that’s 589 UCAS points and our best-ever IB score) and went to Durham to study English, she had done phenomenally well and has gone to one of the premier universities in the country if not world. Yet Durham is not in the Russell Group. Nor is York, where we regularly send students to strongly competitive courses as Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Psychology and Philosophy. Admission to a Russell Group university is, at best, a skewed measure of excellence.

Palmer’s College is committed to social inclusion and widening participation and this is entirely compatible with raising aspirations and increasing success. We do not believe that opportunity is restricted by postcode, or that doors are closed to our students that are open to others. We send our students to the universities that are right for them and, of course, we always want them to get the best offer they can that is consistent with their UCAS choices. We never lack ambition for our students. To be criticised for not being elitist enough is shocking. Imagine what criticism we would receive in a few years if the town centre campus is built and we don’t send any students there because they have all gone away to Russell Group universities.

Last year we sent 520 students to university. That’s 520 success stories.

The decision was made last week at council.

Cllr Kent’s comments come after an advisory group counselled the councillors to not play out their disputes in the local media.

Cllr Kent said: “There they go again. Another hysterical press release and another bout of officer bashing.

I had hoped the days of trying to ridicule council officers were over. Thurrock Council suffered in so many ways when, the then ruling. Conservative group was unable to take responsibility for it’s actions

If an officer get’s something wrong – and they will, we all do – then it should be raised it in private not through a press release.

On this occasion if the Conservatives believed the report on the DPPO to be inaccurate they had plenty of time to have it clarified before the meeting, they could have raised it at the meeting – but no, they chose to wait and do it through the press. I think that tells you all you need to know about their real priorities.

The Labour Chair of the Licensing Committee, Mike Stone, in fact proposed – against the recommendation of officers – that DPPOs should be introduced in four areas of Little Thurrock and Ockendon.

The Labour Group was happy to support the move because we know only too well the misery drink fuelled nuisance causes many residents and hope the DPPO will prove to be a valuable weapon in the Police armoury.”

People’s Pledge, which is led by both pro and anti-EU MPs, is planning more than 100 separate votes across the country by 2013 reports the BBC.

Their aim is to force a national referendum on the UK’s membership.

The first local referendum will take place on 5 April, in one of 13 shortlisted constituencies.

These include ultra marginals Bolton West, Thurrock and Eastleigh – Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Chris Huhne’s seat – although the final location for the first vote has not yet been chosen.

People’s Pledge campaigners include eurosceptic Tory MP Douglas Carswell, pro-European Labour MP Keith Vaz and the eurosceptic Labour MP Natasha Engel.

Mr Carswell said the UK’s relationship with the EU was of profound constitutional significance and “by any objective assessment qualifies as a subject for a referendum”.

“This campaign is not a threat to MPs, it is an opportunity. No politician ever made themselves unpopular by asking the people what they think.”

Mr Vaz said he had “no hesitation” in asking the British people to settle the issue.

“We need to take this argument outside Parliament and let the British people participate in a proper discussion about our role in the EU. I am very confident if we have a referendum that the British people will vote to stay in.”

The group say that the votes will be counted by a postal ballot, overseen by Electoral Reform Services Ltd.

The results will not be binding, in any way – it is all part of the campaign to try to force the government and other national political leaders to support a national referendum.

People’s Pledge said the cost of the local referendum would be at least £20,000, the fee payable to the ERS to supervise the vote.

The group would not reveal who was funding the campaign. It said it had had several large donations, although the majority were thousands of small-scale individual payments.

Campaigners said they believed the referendum on independence for Scotland – plus ones for more city mayors and police chiefs – had given a big boost to their calls for a vote on EU membership.

The coalition government has promised a referendum – backed by law – on the UK’s role in the EU only if there is a significant transfer of power from London to Brussels.

The Commons rejected calls for a referendum in November but only after 81 Conservative MPs rebelled.

Colgate, who lost her seat in 2010, along with Richard Barnbrook, the £53,000-a-year member of the London Assembly, were involved in a complex fraud where bankrupt firms were allowed to continue trading, defrauding the taxman and other creditors for £1million, it is claimed.

Mr Barnbrook, former deputy to far-Right leader Nick Griffin, allegedly received cash “kickbacks” on taxpayer-funded contracts for his office costs and personal assistants at City Hall reports the Evening Standard.

His employees, who were temporary workers provided by a recruitment agency, were former BNP parliamentary candidate Anthony Avery and ex-BNP councillor Emma Colgate. All three have since left the extremist party.

The allegations emerged in a High Court claim by businessman Rene Greville, 65, from Norfolk. He bought Beau Trading LLP, a bankrupt company with alleged links to the BNP, in 2009.

In the court documents, Mr Greville claims to have discovered the firm was a sham and used as a vehicle to defraud the taxman, relying on “kickbacks” to members of the BNP.

Beau Trading supplied Mr Avery and Ms Colgate as temps to Mr Barnbrook, who was kicked out of the party in 2010 but remains an Assembly member.

In the court documents, Mr Greville claims to have uncovered “evidence which proves…Beau Trading LLP acted as a source of funding for at least three top members of the British National Party at the expense of the Greater London Authority”. According to his witness statement, Mr Greville has invoices and bank statements that show Mr Barnbrook and Ms Colgate received commissions on Mr Avery’s payments by the GLA, which was being double-billed by so-called “phoenix” companies that did not exist.

Mr Greville’s statement said: “It is quite evident that it was also agreed between all parties that ‘kickbacks’ on the Greater London Authority contracts…would be paid to Mr Barnbrook and Ms Colgate.”

Mr Greville is suing a finance company that brokered his purchase of Beau Trading, for £197,000. Summing up, he said he had uncovered a “long-term criminal enterprise by four companies which were all under the control of the same people, and all operated from the same addresses using the same telephone and fax numbers.

“With full knowledge and participation of…high-ranking members of the BNP, these ‘phoenix’ companies …stole nearly £1million from the Revenue and hundreds of small creditors over an 18-month period while defrauding the GLA and making corrupt payments to their staff.”

Mr Barnbrook said: “I find all the allegations ludicrous in the extreme. None of the accusations can be substantiated. This is an issue that has arisen between two parties in a claim and counter-claim within a legal dispute. None of this has anything to do with myself or Anthony Avery.” Ms Colgate said the allegations were “ludicrous and can all be proven to be so. This is obviously a failed ‘businessman’s’ attempt to recoup his investment.”

The Vange councillor has seen his comments “trending” on twitter after he referred to disabled protestors as “unwashed.” and suggested they go off to North Korea.

But speaking to YT on Sunday afternoon, cllr MacKenzie defended the comments.

He said: “I was directing the comments at UKUNCUT. I put UKUNCUT at the end of the tweet and it has clearly been mis-interpreted.

“UKUNCUT have been responsible for acts of criminal damage in London and I wanted to highlight that.”

Asked if he had any regrets, the 25-year-old councillor said: ” I regret that they have been mis-interpreted.”

YT asked the councillor, if he had spoken to his boss, MP Stephen Metcalfe.

He said: “We have spoken and I have his support. I have also spoken to Basildon council leader Tony Ball.”

Asked if he would consider stepping down as a councillor or as an assistant to the MP, the councillor said: “No. The comments have been misinterpreted and I stand by my concerns regarding UKuncut.”

Mr Metcalfe was unavailable for comment.

The Vange councillor made the comment on his @cllrmackenzie account.

He said: “I hear there are a bunch of unwashed people at Oxford and Regent Street, if you don’t like capitalism move to North Korea #UKUNCUT”

On Saturday, dozens of disabled protestors caused havoc on Oxford Street, London by chaining themselves together in protest against government welfare cuts.

Planned cuts to the disability living allowance under the bill could see 500,000 disabled people losing money, the charity Mencap said.

Cllr MacKenzie’s comments have created howls of protests on the social media site.

Former deputy prime minister, John Prescott tweeted: “Heard @cllrmackenzie who thinks disabled protestors are ‘unwashed’ & should ‘move to N Korea’ is a researcher for @smetcalfemp…for now.”

buckstwits said: “@CllrMackenzie Considering what happens to the disabled in North Korea (ie this sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/14810…), your comment is simply unacceptable.”

richardbridge7 said: “Wonder how “proud” Conservative MP for South Basildon @SMetcalfeMP is of his researcher @CllrMackenzie who described disabled as “unwashed”"

A number of twitterers have indicated that they intend to e-mail Basildon council leader, Tony Ball in protest at the comments.

Blogger and political commentator Sunny Hundal posted an article on Saturday night which monitored changes to the councillor’s profile.

He said: “At the time his (cllr MacKenzie’s) Twitter biog stated: 25. Basildon Councillor. Assistant Member to the Leader. Work for an MP. Small State Conservative, Economic Liberal. Views expressed in my tweets are my own.

“After questioned about his tweet repeatedly, the Tory councillor changed his biog simply to: Economic Liberal. Views expressed in my tweets are my own.

“He also changed his Twitter picture to wipe any signs of his employer.”

Later on cllrmackenzie added further comment stating that his comments were: “Aimed at their tactics and idoitology of UK Uncut, I am aware that comments may have been interrupted (sic), however was not the case.”

Cllr Gledhill said “It is appalling that the Labour administration have allowed a report to go into the public domain which is riddled with inaccuracies. We had been told that only police officers could enforce Designated Public Place Orders and that they could not support enforcing the booze ban due to limited resources, but it took five minutes on the internet to uncover the fact that both PCSO’s and accredited council officers could confiscate alcohol.

Add to that a poor consultation process and it is clear that rather than challenging officers, Labour are being led by the nose.”

Cllr Arnold, who put the original motion back in 2010 added “I am thrilled that we have finally got this through. Changing family behaviour and going for evictions and injunctions takes months, sometimes years.

“The PCSO’s who asked us to take this forward knew who they wanted to target and knew who they wanted to protect. This ban targets those over 18’s that thought they were untouchable. Those who have their lives ruined by anti-social behaviour will tell you that they would not want anyone else to have to go through what they have – stress, anger, frustration, children who won’t eat, sleep or go outside.

“We need to respect that and understand that this is not a miracle cure, but an opportunity to deal with unacceptable behaviour in the street that undermines strong communities, damages families and isolates our most vulnerable residents”

Two weeks ago, Your Thurrock revealed that in 2009-10 on students from Thurrock went up to either Oxford or Cambridge. Two students accepted places (inc YT blogger Jessica Pham) but they both deferred.

We interviewed Harris Academy chief, Chris Tomlinson who has made it his mission to reverse this trend and believes his sixth form is one of the solutions to this problem.

The cause has been taken up by senior Conservative councillor, Mike Revell who at Wednesday nights meeting of the full council slammed the borough’s poor record.

In bullish mood, he asked the council’s portfolio holder, cllr Oliver Gerrish to respond to statistics that saw not a single student go to Oxbridge in 2009-10 and less than 50% go to an university that same year. A figure that saw the borough in the bottom six in the country.

Cllr Gerrish said: “As GCSE results have risen in the borough above national averages it is important that our students have the highest aspirations for their progression.

He said that while it was important “to ensure even higher numbers of pupils achieve places at the research intensive universities such as Oxford and Cambridge and the Russell group” it was also worth noting that many students stayed closer to home.

Cllr Gerrish said: “I am pleased to report from our locally collected data that from Palmer’s Sixth Form College in 2011, three students went to Oxbridge — not zero as some have said.

“One went to Cambridge to read Natural Sciences, two to Oxford, one to read Law, the other Medicine. This year there are four Oxbridge offers already at this early stage.”

He added: “In 2011, 520 of Palmer’s students progressed to university, with 32 going to the Russell group. Unsurprisingly the most popular destinations were local with 40 choosing the University of Greenwich followed by 33 progressing to ARU and 26 going to Essex.”

Cllr Gerrish also said that the council had requested more detailed information from the Higher Education Skills Agency as this information is not routinely sent to local authorities at this stage in the year.

And he added: “With additional sixth form places being provided by schools and academies as well as other providers, we are planning for even greater achievement in the future.”

The Leader of the Council was speaking at Wednesday (25 January) evening’s meeting of the council.

He said: “For the 850 or so people who work at the refinery and all those who work in the supply chain this is an incredibly worrying start to the new year and it goes without saying that were the refinery to close it would be a hammer blow to the economy of, not only Thurrock but, South Essex as a whole.

“We have, of course, been talking to the management at Coryton offering every help and support we are able to give and I am pleased to report the administrators, Pricewaterhouse Coopers are taking a really positive and constructive attitude towards the future of the refinery.

“The news that they intend to ‘continue to operate’ ‘without disruption’ is good news indeed.”

Cllr Kent added: “No doubt there will be some changes, but the refinery is a major player in Thurrock’s economy and the council will of course do all it can to help PricewaterhouseCoopers in its search to find a viable future for the site – indeed the Chief Executive will be at the Department for Energy and Climate Change tomorrow to support the business in a critical meeting with the minister.

“In the meanwhile I would ask that everyone in this chamber not only works to support the refinery and its staff in any way they can, but also that they scotch any malicious rumours, be they about the refinery or the supply of fuel, and check with officers for accurate details.”

Chief Inspector Richard Baxter and former assistant chief constable and now council public protection boss, Jim Nicolson sat stony faced as the Thurrock councillors ‘pulled rank” and voted through orders that they hoped would reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

The orders relate to the Flowers Estate in South Ockendon, Blackshots Fields in Grays and Delafield Park in Little Thurrock and relate to powers to take action against over-18′s, annoyance and the consumption of alcohol.

Senior police had told the councillors that there was no identifiable problem in the said areas and that there was sufficient legislation in place to take robust action.

Labour had also objected on the grounds of cost but sensing public mood they voted with the Tories who, having spoken to their residents, believed that there was a real need for such action.

Tory councillors’ Maney, Arnold and Gledhill made impassioned speeches backing the orders.

But one former police officer poured scorn on the idea. Security consultant Grant Campbell said: “If you go to magistrates courts, you will see hardly any public order offences coming before the bench.

“If and if anyone is arrested, they will be soon released without charge.”

Orsett councillor, Mike Revell told the full council meeting that he had seen a set of accounts.

He said: “I am using T Fests accounts as an example of the type of accounts that, under new guidelines, will simply not pass inspection.

“If any private business produced this set of accounts then they would be jumped on by the inland revenue.

“I will take one entry for example which says Artists and agents: £19,588. Where are the bills, where are the receipts?”

Council leader, John Kent rejected the criticism.

He said: “If cllr Revell checks his e-mails, he will see that a full explanation is given there.”

Two resident spokespersons, Ray and Sue Abbott spoke passionately against the development which would see the college transfer to Grays high street.

Mr Abbott asked the portfolio holder, cllr Andy Smith what consultation had taken place.

Cllr Smith said: “This had been part of the core strategy since 2008. It had been agreed then by the Conservative cabinet and then in January 2010.

“There had been meetings to discuss the strategy in public in that period as well.”

Residents were less than impressed with this reply.

Mr Abbott said: “You seem to think that this development in Grays will turn things around. The council have overseen the running down of Grays high street and we cannot see things changing.”

The PM was responding to a question by South Basildon and East Thurrock MP, Stephen Metcalfe at PM Questions this afternoon.

Mr Metcalfe asked: “Could we have support for all the customers and suppliers for this very important business that lies at the heart of my constituency.”

“The prime minister replied: “I whole-heartedly agree. The administrators are looking to continue with operations and you are right that it is vital for customers and suppliers to be protected.

“We will continue to keep on the case.”