THE chairman of a Thurrock Council scrutiny committee has vowed he will not let the authority gloss over mistakes surrounding the botched redevelopment of Stanford-le-Hope rail station – and he wants to know the full cost of the massive overspend on the A13 widening project.

At this evening's meeting of the council's Planning, Transport, Regeneration Overview & Scrutiny Committee members will hear reports from Anna Eastgate, the council's assistant director of transport infrastructure projects on the station project and the widening of the A13.

Both projects have significantly outstripped their original budgets and are well behind on completion.

Last week Thurrock Nub News outlined the content of Ms Eastgate's report on Stanford station , in which she states the project is on budget and on time.

Committee chairman. Labour's Cllr Martin Kerin, says he will not allow the council to 'rewrite history' and he wants to hold the Conservative administration of the council to account.

He highlights the station project as an example of a failed administration, saying: ""I demanded that this item be brought back to my committee as I have grave concerns about the current Tory administration's ability to deliver the much needed infrastructure improvements that Thurrock needs.

"What the residents of Thurrock want is a full and frank appraisal of what went so drastically wrong - the current administration clearly lost control of the original project. Moving forward, Thurrock taxpayers need total assurances that Tory-led Thurrock Council will get it right second time around - there is no third time lucky with this scheme.

"Therefore, when I chair the committee on Monday 6 July, I will, of course, be fully focused on the future of this much-delayed but much-needed project. Equally, I will certainly not allow a rewriting of the past."

You can read the station report here and access the report into the A13 here.

The meeting is due to start at 7pm. The meeting will be broadcast live via the Council's online webcast channel here. Because of the poor quality of the broadcast system during which previous committee meetings have seen microphones not working and locked screenshots, Thurrock Nub News has asked to attend the meeting in the council chamber. We cited the example of a recent planning meeting when Cllr David Potter had to leave the meeting because technology failures meant he could not hear and there were speeches made by councilors that were not broadcast because microphones were not working.

Given the importance to the meeting and matters to be discussed, Thurrock Nub News wanted to attend to ensure all aspects of the meeting can be delivered to the public. The meeting is likely to be attended in person or digitally by 11 councillors and officers – so there is plenty of space within social distance regulations – but the council has refused access in person for our reporter.