AT Tuesday night’s Planning, Transport and Regeneration Committee, Thurrock Labour tried, again, to order an independent review into the bungling of the A13 Widening Project. Thurrock Tories voted to block this – just like they did back in February of this year.
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Martin Kerin, Labour Spokesperson for Regeneration, said:
“Tonight’s meeting was like a case of déjà vu. Once again, Thurrock Labour have tried to shine a light into the fiasco of the A13 Widening; once again, Thurrock Tories chose to shroud it in secrecy.
“The report presented to the committee was an insult to the taxpaying residents of Thurrock. It contained nothing on the current overspend or, crucially, who will have to pay for the overspend. The only detail it did contain was something that Thurrock residents already know: that the project continues to be delayed!
“The original completion date was meant to be October 2019 – by the end of this month, the project will already be two years behind schedule! The original budget was meant to be £79m – however, the last mooted figure placed it at £115m! Thurrock’s residents are left to guess at how much that figure is as of now…
“Tonight, Thurrock Labour offered the Tories a chance to order a ‘warts and all’ review into this shambolic project. The fact that they want to continue to hide speaks volumes.”
Using my experience, the cost of the TM alone for all the extra time, will be £m’s.
I suspect it has at least doubled + in cost, and most of the monies coming out of the TBC coffers (our council tax), the HE are not very forgiving, so why would TBC think they are capable of competing will the leaders in this industry, especially using a company that I doubt could win a major project alone. For me a lot of this was about the ego’s of those who chose to bid for this contract, never no more please, the disruption locally has been unacceptable.
Yes it has been a total farce from day one, no continuity, jumping from one area to another, I worked on a number of lot larger contracts from the 60’s, most 12 miles of new build (from green field to running motorways) in less time than this contract has taken so far.
Tory investment at its best! I don’t think so, it is so easy to spend other peoples money, the culprits should be penalised, in a corporate way.