VILLAGERS in East Thurrock have missed out on more than half a million pounds of funding that should have resulted in a footbridge across a busy rail line.

In 2016 Thurrock Council gave planning permission for a housing estate of 299 new homes - known as Bata Field - built by Persimmon on land between the c2c rail line and the Bata industrial estate in East Tilbury.

As part of that permission, under what is known as a Section 106 (S106) agreement to provide mitigating community facilities, the council reached an agreement with the developers for 'a pedestrian footbridge to be provided over the railway lines in the locality of East Tilbury Station'.

That was a legacy part of a 2009 application approved by the planning inspectorate after the now defunct Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation failed to determine it. In 2013 the application, which had not built out at that time was brought before Thurrock Council, who granted an extension to the timescale for development.

The original cost of the footbridge (£450,000) had risen to £545,810, was included in a new draft of the S106 agreement. However, thought the estate was completed, the bridge was never built.

As ten years have now passed, Thurrock Council has hand to back £545,810 (which includes interest) to Persimmon.

A statement from the council to Thurrock Nub news today (Friday, 28 November) says: "The S106 money of £545,810 was given to the council in 2016 and could only be spent on building a footbridge over the railway line.

"It was found that the funding was insufficient for that purpose and additional funding to complete the works was unavailable at that time.

"The council is currently working with multiple key stakeholders to facilitate the development of both a footbridge and a traffic bridge over the railway and is in active discussions with developers and key local businesses about how this can be funded to create better connectivity for East Tilbury.

"Thurrock Council recently undertook an audit of Section 106 monies and identified that it should have been spent or returned by November 2021. As such we wrote to the developer to seek a way forward and they requested return of the money, as is their right."

The Bata Field site (marked by the red line) was built out, with halfd a million given to Thurrock Council for a rail creossing - but the money and interest has now been handed back.

Independent East Tilbury councillor Fraser Massey said: "The amount was never going to be enough for a full modern pedestrian crossing but the inability of the council to get this money assigned to another use is truly disappointing.

"Persimmon also do not come out of this bathed in glory. It shows what developers really care about when it comes to building on Thurrock greenbelt. Not improved infrastructure but purely money.

"This is another botched legacy of S106 agreements which were poorly written and the costings widely inaccurate. Thurrock are in possession of around £15 million of the borough's S106 money so I hope this does not set a precedent.

"The 2023 Best Value Inspection said: 'Thurrock Council has experienced repeated failures both in the delivery of its investment strategy, and in the delivery of major infrastructure and regeneration projects. These failures have resulted in the loss of substantial sums of public money'.

"It seems like we are still subjected to the same mistakes even with new leadership at the council."