THURROCK Council could be contributing almost half the costs of a new transport interchange in Thurrock that have ballooned to more than £34 million – almost three times that of initial estimates in 2017.

Focus will return to the botched and massively overspent project at a meeting of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership's Accountability Board on Friday (16 February).

Significant obstacles to the completion of the project will be highlighted at the meeting.

Funding of Thurrock Council's share – amounting to almost £15 million – will either be secured through capital borrowing by Thurrock Council or through local retention of business rates from the recently announced Thames Freeport.

It has been 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.

From when the Business Case was first approved in 2017 costs went from £12.05m in February 2017 to £29.09m in November 2021.

Thurrock Council have submitted a further update to the Business Case revising cost estimates to £34.71m, a further increase of £5.62m.

A statement as part of board papers to be discussed on Friday said: "Thurrock Council have put forward two proposed options for securing £14.86m which represents 43 per cent of the funding package.

"It is intended that this funding will either be secured through capital borrowing by Thurrock Council or through local retention of business rates from the Freeport.

"It is acknowledged that there may be challenges associated with securing the capital borrowing due to additional requirements placed on Thurrock Council as a consequence of their Section 114 Notice."

While Thurrock Council "have taken steps" to secure the additional funding needed in order to complete the funding package, there remains a £5.4m funding gap.

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

Thurrock Council have committed to return the funding at a later date to enable the Gray South project – which has been paused due to costs rising from £28.7m in November 2019 to £37.9m in February 2022.

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.

To this end, Thurrock Council are developing an alternative 'Station Quarter' scheme. This scheme will focus on delivering a new bridge over the railway line as part of a wider mixed-use development containing a new station, homes and commercial space.

Work is set to start in March 2026 and finish in September 2028.

The delivery of the Stanford le Hope/London Gateway project is contingent on the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) agreeing that £5.4m can be reallocated from the Grays South project.

A statement as part of board papers to be discussed on February 16 said: "If the temporary transfer of funding to the Stanford-le-Hope/London Gateway project is not approved by the board, a funding gap will remain which will impact on the ability of the project to progress to delivery.

"It is noted that there are limited other options available to Thurrock Council at the current time due to their financial position and the additional restrictions which are in place due to the issuing of the Section 114 notice.

"Consequently, Thurrock Council have been unable to detail an alternative funding plan should the board choose not to agree the Option 4 transfer of funding between projects at this meeting.

"Should this situation arise, the board will be asked to consider whether the Stanford-le-Hope/London Gateway project should remain within the local growth fund programme."

Planning consent for the transport interchange has not yet been secured. If all goes to plan. It is expected that the planning application will be determined in March 2024, construction will start in July 2025 and be complete by June 2026.

A statement added: "Planning consent has been granted for the new railway station; however, the planning permission expires in July 2024.

"According to the programme set out in the business case, the GRIP5 contract award (detailed design) is not expected until August 2024 and therefore there would appear to be a significant risk that the planning permission will expire before it is possible for work to commence onsite.

"Thurrock Council have indicated that they are intending to mitigate this risk by planning and collaborating with all partners to ensure that construction can commence before July 2024.

"However, it is unclear how this will be achieved. Whilst this does present a risk which will need to be addressed, construction of the railway station is not expected to start on site until July 2025 which does allow time for a new planning application to be submitted and determined without adversely impacting on the programme."

A cross party group of Thurrock councillors have written to Thurrock Council's CEO, Dr Dave Smith, asking to council to consider scaling down its plans for the site and to restore it to its former functionality.

One of them, Stanford West independent ward councillor Neil Speight said: "It's time to stop trying to pursue an impossible, vanity-driven scheme and show some common sense.

"This scheme may have had merit in the theoretically financially viable days of 2017 when it was first dreamed up but rather than throw many more millions at it, I'd rather see the money spent on deserving causes in the borough.

"Because of this council's previous stupidity, families, young people and older folk are being penalised and hurt by vicious cost-saving measures.

"It's surely time to at least consider stopping throwing good money after bad."