Thurrock Council has already spent a “significant” amount of money on the redevelopment of the Civic Centre, despite failing to produce a business case for the plan or obtaining planning permission.

The council’s chief financial officer noted in a report that the project had “already incurred significant expenditure on design and other related expenditure” in response to a motion calling for the plans to be abandoned.

He added that “compensation” would also need to be paid to a contractor.

Despite this expenditure coming from taxpayers’ money, the council has failed to respond to queries about what is meant by “significant” and whether these costs are in addition to the £9.7million already allocated to the project.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service requested details from the council five times since Wednesday and received no official response.

The information has now been requested through a Freedom of Information request.

Councillor Jane Pothecary proposed the motion to scrap the project said: “I’m appalled that the council has allegedly incurred ‘significant expenditure’ before planning permission and before a full business case has been presented.

“It smacks of a reckless attitude to the borough’s finances at a time when we are still a long way from delivering all the services we should be and face spiralling costs in providing the right care for our children and older people.

“I do not believe that this vanity project will ‘inspire’ developers. This is field of dreams stuff. I do not see why the council would need or want a presence on the High Street, when they are determined to make residents do everything online.

“The High Street needs shops, not a grand entrance to a municipal building. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the current council chamber and councillors’ offices. There may be some adaptations we could make, but these could be easily and much more cost-effectively made within the existing building.”

The leader of Thurrock Independents, Councillors Luke Spillman, said: “It is never popular to say we are going to improve the council building but if there was a business case that said in ten years we’ll recoup this much money then I’m for it – the problem is that business case isn’t there. Without that, this really is just a vanity project.”

NB The council has now responded to the Gazette's request for comment. Click here to see what they have said.