THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Thurrock’s Council for Voluntary Services has responded angrily to demands by the Deputy Leader of Thurrock Council that they must have less meetings and show more progress.
Naya Naqvi’s comments come as the predicted war of words between the council and the voluntary sector continues over funding and outcomes.
Ms Naqvi said: “Yes I agree with Cllr Amanda Arnold about less meetings and more results. The difficulty is that most of these meetings are with the Thurrock Council, Thurrock LSP (Shaping Thurrock Partnership Board) and its programme board. So there has to be an understanding from the statutory sector to acknowledge their responsibility in organising these meetings and expecting voluntary sector organisations to attend.
Sources close to the voluntary sector have also expressed confusion as to who is in charge at the Civic Offices. A source that did not wish to be named said: “Is Cllr Redsell not up to the job as we seem to be dealing with Cllr Arnold now. Maybe the election will make things clearer.”
Ms Naqvi also defended the criticism of their website.
She said: “Thurrock CVS website is maintained by volunteers, not by a paid member of staff. This demonstrates how underfunded infrastructure support is in Thurrock. Thurrock CVS is an infrastructure organisation. Website development is a specialised skill. Any member of staff just can’t pitch in and start working on it. In past this work has been carried out by IT literate volunteers, whenever we find any IT volunteer the work will begin again.”
