THURROCK councillors failed to get answers to questions about how much the final overspend on the controversial A13 widening project will be – and a call for an independent review into the project was rejected by Conservative members.

That was the outcome of tonight's (Tuesday, 9 February) meeting of the council's planning, transport and regeneration overview and scrutiny committee when requests for information and guarantees by councillors were blanked by senior officers.

The A13 widening project has been something of a disaster for the council.

In order to improve journey times and support economic growth in this area Thurrock Council embarked on a project to widen the road between Orsett and Stanford-le-Hope by adding an additional lane in both directions, replacing four bridges and improving drainage. This scheme was initially projected to cost £79 million.

It is now tens of millions over budget and tonight's meeting was told that a deadline for completion by winter this year is now likely to be missed, with March next year the new target date.

That puts the project was almost two and a half years behind schedule and even the best estimates put it at least 30 million over budget – but officers have once again refused to give an estimate of the predicted final overspend.

Committee chairman and independent councillor John Allen opened the latest debate about the project by asking the council's transport infrastructure director Anna Eastgate – who is about to leave the authority after being brought in to get the project back on track – "Are Thurrock residents expected to bear the cost of this overspend? And what will it be? I just sincerely hope this is not going to be a tax on Thurrock residents."

He was told: "The cost is a work in process. The finalised figures will be known after the event and I cannot answer your question about whether residents are going to be taxed or not."

The council says it is trying to find ways to fund the shortfall without deducting the additional millions from its reserves.

Cllr Martin Kerin, a former chair of the committee who was ousted in a purge of Labour chairs by Conservatives last year did try to find some hope of a cost reduction by highlighting parts of a report by Ms Eastgate that said land purchase costs had been reduced by £800,000 and council costs had been reduced, but Ms Eastgate dampened optimism by saying: "I expect Thurrock Council costs and land costs to go up because we still have compensation to settle, this is not a final figure."

Cllr Kerin quickly asked about 'compensation' saying: "I was looking at the positives as well as the well-publicised negatives so what are the compensation issues? Why does it happen? Who pays? Who receives the money?"

Ms Eastgate said: "Compensation events are matters where issues arise which are out of the scope of the contract. They can be for a range of issues. It may be things that were not in the original contract, for example amendments to design. There are lots of different instances."

That prompted Cllr Kerin to ask: "To date how much has Thurrock Council paid out in compensation?"

He was told: "I don't have those figures. There are still compensation events to be assessed. We are risk of reporting piecemeal information rather than the full picture."

That won no favour with Cllr Kerin who said: "We are trying to keep a close handle on this. As of today we need to keep track of exactly where we are up to and what we have paid out. This information is crucial.

"We are 471 days over the original deadline, we are four days away from what the revised day was and we are 13 months away from March 2022.

"We need a thorough review and so I am asking for this committee to commission a Local Government Association peer review on the A13 widening project."

"There are lessons we need to learn regarding major infrastructure projects"

A peer review is an investigation facilitated by the association (LGA), when a peer team consisting of councillors and senior officers from local authorities around the UK would be called in to examine the council's leadership, governance, financial planning and capacity to deliver the project.

Cllr Kerin immediately appeared to win support from Cllr Allen who said: "I think it's a fair request to ask for the compensation being paid out" and Cllr Kerin's Labour colleague Cllr Oliver Gerrish chipped in with: "I think it is a good suggestion. Clearly there are some major issues we have come up against in the project and there are lessons we need to learn regarding major infrastructure projects.

"It is important we really do shine a light on the processes we have gone through and the decisions that have been made."

At that point Cllr Allen, who had been embroiled in a fierce encounter with Ms Eastgate when the two clashed at a recent meeting of the Lower Thames Crossing Task Force appeared keen on a review, saying: "There has been a massive, massive overspend on the A13. It just seems whatever major project lands in our lap we continue to fail. That failure in terms of cost is reflected on the people of Thurrock and that simply isn't fair. We have seen a barrage of mistakes.

However, Tory David van Day then threw a spanner in the review works, asking: "Is there a cost to the LGA?"

Somewhat astonishingly no-one among the senior officers in the meeting, including director of place Andy Millard appeared to know the answer. Nor did the democratic services representatives conducting the meeting.

Mr Millard said: "The honest answer is I am unsure but my gut feeling is there would be a cost, but we can find that out."

Thurrock Nub News understand the cost would be in the region of £7,500 to £15,000 depending on the scope of the investigation and the number of days it might take to undertake.

Ms Eastgate appeared to want to shift the blame from the current management to her predecessors saying: "I don't have anything to add. We have talked about the decisions made and the historic decision made on the current proposition. A lot of the decisions we have seen today relate to the historic decisions made."

Cllr Allen tried to press her on the idea of a peer review, saying: "We should at least consider what the cost might be than pressing ahead tonight. There is very little or no audit trail. Do you think the overspend will climb as time goes on?

Ms Eastgate said: "It's difficult to say."

And with words that may have future resonance to those calling for the council to mount a serious investigation into recent flooding in the Stanford-le-Hope area adjacent to the A13 widening work, added: "Drainage has been a key risk that the project has been carrying. The drainage work is progressing, we have had to stop that over Christmas and there might be further delays.

"The utilities diversion means we have significant issues with the utility companies that are largely outside of our control. We are doing everything we can to mitigate those impacts, but a lot of the issues relate to historic matters inherent with the project."

Cllr Allen could only respond with: "There always seems to be a snake in the mix somewhere," but then appeared to slither away from making a definitive decision by saying because of the lack of knowledge about the cost of a review she could make decision and he would abstain from the vote.

Cllr Kerin still wanted to press his points and, seconded by Cllr Gerrish carried on by saying: "The committee should grab the bull by the horns. We need this review. I have every respect for officers but tonight we need to say we need to learn a lesson."

However, the call for an independent review was lost when the three Conservative members of the committee, Cllrs van Day, David Potter and Alex Anderson voted it down.

After the meeting Cllr Kerin issued a statement saying: ""It is proving almost impossible to get straight answers to straight questions on just why the A13 widening project has gone so badly wrong. Local residents deserve to know how we have got to a position where the road is two and a half years late and tens of millions of pounds overspent - after all it's those residents that will have to use it.

"I really thought that asking the Local Government Association to carry out a peer review of the whole project was a more than reasonable way to identify the causes of the delays and overspends and I am really disappointed that Thurrock Conservatives voted the idea down.

"We need detailed answers as to how this has happened, and a detailed plan to ensure that this can never happen again. We could have taken a huge step toward that last night but, instead, Thurrock Conservatives voted to hide from scrutiny."