Sunday 17 November 2013

Demonstration against the Tideway Tunnel shaft

Campaigners from Don’t Dump on Deptford’s Heart are inviting people to join them at a demonstration against the Thames Tunnel proposals on Thursday.

There will be a public hearing regarding the siting of one of the shafts for the Thames Tunnel at 8.45am this Thursday at the Ahoy Centre in Borthwick Street.

The campaigners want people to join them at a 'fun and friendly public demonstration to Save our Green!'

The press release says; Last Wednesday planning inspectors were left in no doubt that Deptford residents will suffer three years and a half years of misery if Thames Water’s plans to sink a shaft on Crossfields’ Green for London’s so-called ‘super sewer’ goes ahead.

Campaigners from Don’t Dump on Deptford's Heart gave evidence to the first session of the Planning Inspectorate’s inquiry into the controversial Thames Tideway Tunnel at the America Square Conference Centre.

The campaigners were united in their calls for the shaft to be sunk instead in the Thames at Borthwick Wharf, as originally proposed by Thames Water. The Planning Inspectorate has the power to recommend to the Secretary of State whether the £4.2 billion project goes ahead or not. Their decision is expected in late summer/early autumn 2014. The campaigners’ concerns centre on the Deptford spur of the tunnel.

Thames Water plan to sink a shaft on the green space between St Paul’s Church and St Joseph’s primary school. It will be some 46 meters deep and 17 meters in diameter. Spoil from the shaft and tunnelling work will be removed from site by hundreds of lorries, forcing the closure of the whole of the western carriageway of Deptford Church Street.


They say turning Crossfields Green into a construction site would deeply affect the community, particularly school children. The green is right next to St Joseph’s and Tidemill schools, St Paul’s church, the High Street and hundreds of flats and houses, precisely the kind of areas that Thames Water's own Site Selection Methodology says they would avoid.

Aside from the concern that the works will cause noise and disruption to pupils, worshippers, residents and businesses, the campaigners are angry that an alternative site at Borthwick Wharf has been ruled out. The reasons for Thames Water’s switch remain unclear. 

3 comments:

Unknown said...
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Ed said...

It's like having all the disruption of a crosrail tunnel (like the one near my office on Bond St) but none of the benefit. Brilliant.

Sue said...

This is important for anyone who uses, as well as lives on, Deptford Church Street.

If you live anywhere near it, you'll be affected by the increase in pollution that is already over the legal levels at the top of the road. See the Dame's previous post on this: http://deptforddame.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/campaigners-against-silvertown-tunnel.html

This will be compounded by 90 lorries a day coming out of the new development at Faircharm. See http://crossfields.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/faircharm-ch-ch-ch-changesthe-facts-and.html

And if the present Convoys Wharf application is approved by the Mayor of London, work will start in 2014 and go on until 2023, with accompanying construction traffic pouring out onto Evelyn Street, increasing congestion on that stretch and causing back-ups in Deptford Church Street.

So even as a road user, it looks pretty bad.

Couple that with up and coming changes to services on South East Trains (no stops at London Bridge), bus journeys extended by gridlocked traffic, and cycling seemingly being hyped up as an unsafe option, Deptford's transport links are starting to look very unattractive.

As someone who has lived here a very long time and seen our transport options increase amazingly, I reckon the London Bridge change always been the most useful. Though the East London Line is great, why would I want to go to Shoreditch and Stratford, except to see what certain people think Deptford should become?

Ironic maybe, that the Tunnel would be ever so slightly less required if land didn't keep being built on to provide luxury flats as investment opportunites for people who don't even live here.

BTW, the Tunnel stands to make a mighty profit. See http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-21/thames-water-super-sewer-plan-may-triple-profit-bnef.html

There are other options to the Tunnel. And better ways to solve the housing crisis.