SENIOR officers of Thurrock Council 'dodged a critical bullet' last night as a review took place into the botched and budget-busting redevelopment of Stanford-le-Hope station.

And they even came away with a pat on the back from some councillors for the way they have managed to avoid turning a crisis into a budget disaster!

At the meeting of the council's Planning, Transport, Regeneration Overview & Scrutiny Committee, directors found themselves in the firing line as councillors quizzed them over the state of the Stanford station project.

When it was originally announced a couple of years ago the work was set to be completed by the autumn of last year and the cost was £15 million.

The council gave the scheme the green light and workers moved in to demolish to existing station. But then engineers realized the scheme's design was seriously flawed and unworkable without spending up to at least another ten million on the project.

Last year work stopped and the council committed another £4 million to the overall cost and entered a 'pause and reflect' process when the scheme was reviewed.

Earlier this year a new plan was drawn up, with the council paying more than £4 million to buy the nearby site of Daybreak Windows to enable them to abandon plans to build an expensive cantilever extension to the front of the station over the Hope creek and instead expand the existing car park and create a bus turning circle on the other side of the road to the station.

It is not clear if the price of the land purchase is included in the new £19 million 'budget envelope' created for the project – which officers now say should be enough to cover the full cost of regeneration.

In short, the whole project has been something of a fiasco but the council's assistant director of transport infrastructure projects, Anna Eastgate, wrote an upbeat report on what is now called the 'Stanford-le-Hope Interchange.'

Her report described the project as on budget and deliverable on time – appearing to discard the original outline for the scheme and instead only starting its history from early last year.

Committee chair Martin Kerin went into the meeting promising hard-hitting questions and said that he would not allow the 're-writing of history'.

However, simple questions like 'why did you demolish the station buildings when you knew the plan was unworkable?', remained unasked! And there was little reference to the original budget figure as Ms Eastgate and director of place Andy Millard emerged relatively unscathed from criticism.

Mr Millard told the committee: "A pause and reflect exercise has taken place. The orginal design costs which included a cantilevered deck and podium, proved to be a very expensive and complex design to deliver, and we listened to concerns raised by residents of the impacts on them. Concerns were also raised by the environment agency.

"All that led to the conclusion that the design was quite cramped and we were trying to put a lot of infrastructure into a small space. So we looked at finding an alternative design that could be delivered within the budget envelope.

"The budget is £19 million - this includes the £4m addition approved by Cabinet in 2020. (Mr Millard, when quizzed by councillors, later amended the statement to say 2019).

"In terms of delays, there are no delays in the programme which is proposed for completion in August 2021. The pause and reflect exercise meant we could secure the purchase of the factory site opposite.

"In summary it gave us the ability to bring the scheme forward as quickly as possible and the acquisition of the additional land made a much improved scheme with the added benefit of much needed local car parking. It will be a much improved scheme for the wider community."

Cllr Oliver Gerrish did try to challenge the 'rewriting of history' saying: "We are talking about this new project as if it has not relation to the original one. How much is the new project and overspend from the original had it gone through successfully?"

Ms Eastgate responded by immediately ignoring the first budget and said: "The original design was never going to be deliverable within the budget envelope of £19m. The tender prices were coming in in excess of £25m. Which was why a decision had to be made to do something different.

"We have recently brought in new designers who have been given the budget and they must deliver within that budget envelope."

Cllr Gerrish pressed her again on the original £15 budget, saying: "It is over budget. How is this value for money considering it is going to cost more than it did originally - £15 million?"

Ms Eastgate responded: "We will be delivering the scheme within the budget. I am not quite clear what the question is? "I have a greater level of confidence that by using a fixed price tender we will have a level of certainly on the cost." Cllr Gerrish appeared exasperated and gave up!

Mr Millard then joined in to say: "I am absolutely confident we have the necessary grip on the project and I can give the committee the assurance I am confident we are on top of this."

Cllr Alex Anderson Anderson said: "We demolished the building and that has been disappointing. But this pause and reflect exercise has been so good. I would like to thank Anna and other officers for their work, this project is now going in a positive direction.

Having regained his enthusiasm Cllr Gerrish returned to the fray. He said: "It's taken us years and years and a pause and reflect to get the point we are shaping this project.

"Where did the delay come from? I am so curious why it has taken this stop and rethink to get this back and facing in the right direction."

That was the cue for Ms Eastgate to pat herself on the back for taking over the project, saying: "There has been a change in resource. It took an outside view, somebody who had not been embodied in the project.

"I'm long in the tooth, nothing fazes me. I do believe this is a real positive outcome. But we aren't sitting back on our laurels."

And she then promised that the station would not become another massive overspend like the A13 and that future projects, like the rebuild and regeneration of the council's civic offices, would run smoothly, saying: "We need to ensure that we don't allow the issues on the A13 to happen again.

"And I have every confidence that the civic offices will be a completely different project. We are learning our lessons for the future. We have to get the design and the execution of the project right."

Mr Millard added: "The amount of schemes we have got and the amount of funding we have got is a considerable responsibility. We take learning from these schemes and have the confidence to deliver these schemes going forwards.

"We have significantly bettered the Stanford-le-Hope scheme."

The last word went to Cllr David Potter who had a bit of sage advice for his officers, saying: "It is important that we use fixed price tenders. Prices have to be fixed."