THURROCK Council has been challenged to prove it can bridge a multi-million pound funding gap and offer guarantees it will come up with the cash before it can move ahead with its ambitious plans to redevelop Stanford-le-Hope rail station.

And if it cannot, it runs the risk of losing funding from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP).

The partnership, a mix of local authorities from either side of the Thames, met yesterday (Friday, 16 February) to discuss the situation regarding the botched station regeneration plan.

As Thurrock Nub News reported earlier this week the station project has risen from an expected cost of around £12 million at the outset in 2017 to approaching £35 million now.

The council has to come up with around half the cost of the project and members of SELEP'S accountability board have failed to be impressed by a presentation made by the council today.

The council told SELEP that its share of the cost of the project – amounting to almost £15m – will either be secured through capital borrowing by Thurrock Council or through local retention of business rates from the Freeport.

And while the council says it has 'taken steps' to secure the additional funding needed in order to complete the funding package, there still remains a £5.4 million funding gap.

This is planned to be bridged by temporarily reallocating £5.4m of the currently unspent £5.7m local growth fund allocation awarded to the Grays South project – consisting of a number of interventions designed to support the economic and social vitality of Grays Town Centre.

If approval to do that is granted, the council has committed to return the funding at a later date to enable the Grays South project – which has been paused due to costs rising from £28.7m in November 2019 to £37.9m in February 2022 – to go ahead. But that whole project is shrouded in problems and doubt.

At Friday's meeting SELEP gave tacit approval to the switch from Grays to Stanford but says all the financial switching is contingent on Thurrock Council's finance chief – known as its section 151 officer – giving assurances that Thurrock can hold to its side of the agreement.

At the moment the council is between senior finance officers – its previous interim officer Steven Mair is at the end of his tenure and is about to take up a similar role in Bradford, and a new interim, Dawn Calvert, starts next month.

SELEP board members have expressed concern about Thurrock's ability to meet its pledges.

It was noted that "there may be challenges" associated with securing the capital borrowing given Thurrock Council has essentially declared itself bankrupt. The proposed borrowing would require consent from both the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Treasury.

The council has to go on bended knee for everything it might wish to borrow and is currently struggling to put a viable case together just to build 20 new social housing homes.

It is envisaged that the £5.4m funding will be sought from the capital funding streams available to Network Rail and its partners to deliver homes in and around transport hubs.

The consequence of Thurrock Council not being able to make all the requisite guarantees is that SELEP could ask for its £7.5 million committed to the rail station project to be returned.

It has told Thurrock the delivery programme for the Grays South project can be extended to allow it explore alternative scheme proposals. The Grays project completion date is now September 2028.

And it remains firm that Thurrock has to prove its case – and its viability.

SELEP accounting board chairman Simon Cook said: "We have not yet received those section 151 sign-offs. A decision taken at this meeting cannot be implemented until the required assurances have been received from the section 151 officer at Thurrock Council."

A statement from Thurrock Council after the meeting said: "We have nothing further to add at this stage."