THE former Stanford-le-Hope Station was demolished without a rail company’s consent, it has been claimed after questions were raised about the cost of replacing it reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
The 1960s station was torn down in 2020 by the then Conservative administration but spiralling costs and mounting council debt delayed the scheme.
The Labour council has pledged to see the scheme through and has managed to cut costs but speaking at a Thurrock full council meeting on Wednesday, Gary Byrne, Independent councillor for The Homesteads, asked why Wickford Station was being rebuilt at a cost of £4million while Stanford-le-Hope Station is still set to cost up to £12million.
In her response, Lee Watson, councillor responsible for good growth, said: “The current budget was set for Stanford-le-Hope Station was based upon value engineering opportunities identified on the previous scheme as well as working alongside Network Rail c2c. Remember we demolished their station without them really saying we could
“The council will be appointing a contractor to design and build the station. During that process we will identify all opportunity to reduce the costs. We will also be investigating Wickford Station and we will engage with contractor to see how they drove the price down.”
Plans for the new station and transport interchange were first announced in 2017 but with the cost spiralling the current Labour administration put the scheme on hold to re-evaluate it.
A new station and transport interchange was initially designed to connect bus, rail, cycle, taxi, and pedestrian movement in Stanford-le-Hope and land near the station was purchased to accommodate the interchange.
Ms Watson later announced the scheme would be trimmed to £10million, with a £1million contingency fund and £1million funding from Thames Freeport. The project will now involve a new station but the interchange has been scrapped in favour of simple bus turnaround on the road.
At the meeting Mr Byrne also raised concerns over the £4.7 million cost of purchasing land near to the station for the interchange which was said to have previously been offered for sale for £500,000.
He said: “The site across the road which is now basically a Japanese knotweed farm along with its ongoing costs is a £4.7 million investment which is not part of the plan. Why did we purchase such a worthless piece of land? We paid £4.7 million for Japanese knotweed farm and we can get that for free”
Ms Watson agreed. She said: “It’s an absolutely extortionate amount of money paid for land that we could have bought way before that for minimal price. I can’t answer that question I don’t know why we spend that money.”
Mr Byrne, who after the meeting said Conservatives had “bulldozed” the station, added £15 million was already spent on engaging consultants in 2019.
George Coxshall, leader of the Conservative Group, denied c2c was unaware of the demolition. He said: “It is very disappointing that the Labour administration failed to respond correctly to councillor Bryne’s question, instead choosing to ignore the facts.
“c2c and Network Rail, are both partners in the Stanford-le-Hope Station project and were fully aware of the plans – I do not know any differently. It was disappointing that due to the S106 payment time limits on funding from DP world, construction had to begin to ensure that the money was not lost.”
Mr Coxshall added: “Everyone knows land values are exceptionally high in Thurrock, that means the council had to pay market rate for any purchase. All decisions to buy or sell land and the reasoning behind them are well documented by officers, with their advice provided to cabinet for a decision. “Indeed, a quick search shows that the site was not considered in initial drafts of the project so would not have been purchased prior to it being identified to be used for construction site storage when the works start, so it is clear good reasons for the purchase were made.”
C2c was asked to comment but declined.
