THURROCK Council has revealed that it has spent more than half a million pounds on an external firm to carry out project management on the botched Stanford rail station project.

The latest figures announced by the authority show a payment of £590,000 to Mace Ltd - the same firm that have also been paid £150,000 for their management of the A13 widening scheme, another project that has been delayed and run massively over budget!

The contract with Mace Ltd for the station work was started in October last year and was supposed to be for six months work. The council now says the conclusion of the work will be October next year - it is not indicated whether there will be any additional payment due.

Mace were awarded the project management task for the A13 in March this year at a time when the full extent of the council's own mismanagement of the project, which is more than £40 million over budget came to light.

A recent meeting of the council's transport overview scrutiny committee probed both projects and the council's director of place and its assistant director of transport infrastructure projects briefed councillors on what was happening and what had gone wrong, but there was no mention of consultants being brought in.

Related stories:

Council spends millions to buy up extra land for rail station project

Botched projects under scrutiny

[L]http://www.thurrockindependent.com/2019/06/14/work-halted-at-stanfords-planned-new-rail-station/[L+] Work grinds to a halt