THURROCK councillors have been told that the borough council may be taking legal action to recoup some of the cost of the botched A13 widening project.

At this evening's meeting of Thurrock Council's standards and audit committee the council's finance director Sean Clark gave a hint that the authority may have been badly advised and could seek legal reparation.

Thurrock Nub News has closely followed the progress of the massively over budget and much-delayed scheme and reported, among other things, huge sums paid to consultants including Mace Ltd who were paid £150,000 for their input into the management of the widening scheme, while a recent story focused on the £4 million paid to consultancy firm Aecom.

Their input into the A13 remains a mystery as the council has declined to answer questions.

Asked to submit a report in the absence of the council's infrastructure assistant director, who is about to leave the authority for another highly paid job in Southend, Mr Clark updated members on the A13 widening project this evening (Thursday, 11 March).

He said: "You will be aware of the historic challenges on this project. There has been progress, last weekend saw the demolition of the Horndon bridge."

Mr Clark told members local businesses were benefiting from the widening project, saying: "£8.7 million has been spent with local suppliers."

There has been local speculation that the council has been tinkering with projected works conclusion dates so they can make a positive out of a projected shambolic negative by announcing an early completion of the project and that theory was given some weight by Mr Clark's comment this evening.

He said: "The project is due to be complete in March 2022 but officers are currently negotiating with contractors how we can reduce costs and accelerate that timeline."

He was quizzed by the three councillors present at tonight's meeting about the probity of the project and asked about how the overspend would be met.

He said: "We are still in negotiations with third parties, we have a report with SELEP (South East Local Enterprise Partnership) tomorrow (Friday, 12 March) for additional funding.

"We are having ongoing discussion with a number of parties to try and identify further contributions.

"We are still looking with our legal advisor about a lot of legal advice we have been given with the site. There are a number of discussions going on. We will report going forward."