CONSERVATIVE councillors voted to maintain a veil of secrecy over reasons behind the soaring cost of Stanford-le-Hope's rail station rebuild - promoting a protest walk out by opposition councillors.

At this evening's (Tuesday, 1 February) meeting of Thurrock Council's planning, transport and regeneration overview and scrutiny committee members were due to be briefed on the latest situation regarding the botched and overrunning project.

At the weekend Thurrock Nub News exclusively revealed the costs had risen to just shy of £30 million - smashing a 'budget envelope' set just last year by the council's Conservative portfolio holder for regeneration by £10 million.

The updated costs of the project were put on the agenda for today's committee with the proviso they remained a secret, but disgruntled whistleblowers within the authority leaked the information.

Despite the fact that the budget-busting figures are now in the public domain, the three Tory members of the committee did not want to discuss them in public.

Labour members Cllrs Martin Kerin and Lee Watson said the public had a right to know how and why there had been a dramatic rise in costs - particularly in the wake of Cllr Mark Coxshall's pledge that the cost would not exceed £20m.

However, Tory chairman Graham Snell and members Cllrs Tom Kelly and Adam Clark voted to kick out the press and public.

Cllrs Kerin and Watson declined to take part in protest and also left the room.

Cllr Snell represented Stifford Clays as a councillor between 2014 and 2018, initially as a UKIP representative, then forming the Independent Group. He was beaten by Tory Elizabeth Rigby, a member of a party he had called a 'failed administration' in 2018.

Ironically, on rejoining the Conservative group in 2019 and winning a seat for them in Corringham and Fobbing, he championed transparency and talked about one of the things that he was most impressed by about the Tories, saying: "One of the things I was always appreciative of was how open the council and leadership were when it came to financial matters."

After this evening's meeting Cllr Kerin said: "What we saw tonight from the Thurrock Tories was shameful. Instead of openness, they chose secrecy.

"Myself and my Labour colleague Cllr Watson couldn't stomach being part of a meeting which was about hiding the truth from the people of Thurrock. It's not right that the mismanagement of millions of pounds of public money is being debated behind closed doors.

"Going forward, there needs to be complete openness and 100 per cent transparency. With the Conservatives in charge, I'm not holding my breath."