A GOVERNMENT consultant has "told" Thurrock Council that landing a new Lower Thames Crossing on Canvey Island is just as valid as any of the other options being considered.

The Government are currently looking at building a new crossing over the Thames - with both proposals landing in Thurrock.

Option A would see a new crossing built next to the current crossing at Dartford and C would land a new crossing between Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury and Tilbury Fort.

Option B, which would have seen a crossing land near Grays Beach Park was dropped last year.

Option D, linking the A130 in Canvey Island and the M2 in Kent, and Option E, landing a new crossing in Southend, were not considered in 2013 - after being dropped in 2010.

But speaking at a public meeting on the Lower Thames Crossing latest, David Bull, the council's director of planning and transport, said he had bumped into the Government consultant, from firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, who carried out the 2009 consultation that looked at five options for a new crossing rather than three.

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The consultant told Mr Bull that Options D and E were not included in the latest consultation, which closed last October, because "their arms had been twisted by the Government".

Mr Bull told the meeting that the consultant scored the options against one another in 2009, and if that same scoring system was employed today, Option D would come off better than Option C - the option backed by Essex County Council.

The council officer said: "We're hearing here, let's open up the discussion and look for an option for a river crossing outside Thurrock and that could be Option D2."

Thurrock Council is now set to ramp up the pressure on the Government to look in more detail at Option D.

Here was what Mr Bull had to say at Thursday night's meeting: