ON the day after the latest deadline passed for the completion of Thurrock Council's much-ridiculed A13 widening project, an opposition councillor has slammed the 'incompetence' of the ruling Conservative group and its inability to manage infrastructure projects.

In a statement issued today (April 1), Cllr Martin Kerin says: "Today is April Fool's Day - an appropriate day for this joke of an administration currently running Thurrock Council! If someone had to said to me back in October 2019 that the A13 widening still wouldn't be completed by March 2022, even I wouldn't have believed that Thurrock's Conservatives could be that incompetent.

"Yet here we are, two years, five months and five days after the original scheduled completion date.

"The most recent reports to council committees have stated that February or March 2022 would see the A13 widening finally completed. As always, this has turned out to not be the case. It is crystal clear why the Tories have repeatedly refused Labour's call for an independent LGA peer review into this botched project on multiple occasions.

"As well as the delays, Thurrock's residents are also bracing themselves for the final overspend bill. Unfortunately, the incompetent delays and overspending are not an April Fool's joke - they are further evidence of the incompetence of Thurrock's Conservatives.

"The joke has gone on too long."