A TRAFFIC mystery has taken place in Stanford-le-Hope this evening (Tuesday, 31 March).

Earlier today Thurrock Council announced a change in its projected diversion routes for HGVs leaving the DP World London Gateway port. Tonight was supposed to be the second in a schedule of four evenings of diversions to accommodate urgent emergency work on the Manorway bridge over Southend Road. Residents on affected roads received detailed advanced notice of the works and a pre-emptive apology.

They had been warned that the overnight works would last from 7pm to 5pm, each night. Originally Thurrock Council had estimated the work would last up to 11 nights, though that prediction was reduced to four nights last week.

Work started last night (Monday) but disruption was far less than initially expected and the diversion and the road closure and diversion ended earlier than expected.

Earlier today, the council announced a change of scheduling because of unanticipated delays on the first scheduled works, which had been switched to Thursday for completion, with Tuesday and Wednesday seeing work on the alternate Manorway carriageway, meaning traffic leaving the port and logistics park would diverted through the town centre.

That happened briefly this evening and there were reports of some congestion, but then the Manorway closure abruptly ended and all roads were opened as normal. The odd HGV still diverted through the town, presumably working to earlier briefings.

A source within the council told Nub News around 11.30pm: "Resurfacing has finished already and the road reopened. Last night took longer because there was additional road marking carried out whilst we had the closure in place and also the CCTV installation work was being undertaken.

"Tonight was just resurfacing on the bridge deck and it's been completed.

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"Tomorrow we'll install the new bridge joint and Thursday night will be the same on the eastbound bridge."

Stanford West ward councillor Neil Speight said: "Confusion appears to reign. We were told the speed camera work and resurfacing on the Manorway was completed last week on a separate work programme, now it seems it wasn't. And the work tonight is not bridge-related, but for the cameras.

"It's really not a great look and completely unprofessional.

"It really does seem that the council has little control or understanding of what is being done. We will have to wait and see what the next two days bring, but my big fear is that we are paying for work that was massively overstated or not needed. There needs to be a full investigation and total diligence of all the work orders and accounts. Many questions remain and I will be asking them.

"Funnily enough I was at a meeting earlier this evening when I stated that that Thurrock Council couldn't even run a bath and its competence was in grave doubt. This is just further proof of that opinion".