Leigh Community Centre, Elm Road, Leigh-on-Sea

Our Town Council, for many years a non-political bunch of community-minded souls, has been cynically taken over by a Tory group whose end game is apparently to bring the whole thing to its knees.

They suspended the excellent Town Clerk eight months ago after she tried to hold them to account, and on Wednesday night it emerged office staff at the Community Centre had also been suspended, threatening a space which hosts lunch clubs for the elderly, baby groups, yoga classes and loads more.

At short notice, nearly 100 locals gathered in peaceful protest. The Town Council Chairman Bernard Arscott (his real name) called the police (see Extras) and three cars roared up with blue lights flashing to find this scene. 

Slight overreaction but, to be fair, they did have to ask a few people to stop standing in an unused disabled parking space.