by Michael Smith
Responding to the announcement on November 6, 2008 that London Mayor Boris Johnson is going to scrap proposals to build a new six-lane road bridge across the Thames between Greenwich and Beckton in East London, Friends of the Earth London Campaigner Jenny Bates said:
"We're delighted that the Mayor has stuck to his manifesto pledge to scrap plans for the Thames Gateway road bridge - this is a tremendous victory for local communities who will be spared the blight of more congestion, noise and air pollution.
"We hope the decision signals an end to discredited and outdated attempts to regenerate London by simply building more roads - any new scheme should bring the benefits of regeneration without causing environmental problems.
"Boris Johnson must now come up with transport plans that ensure the capital cuts its carbon footprint and is positioned at the forefront of measures to tackle climate change."
It must be noted that Friends of the Earth has consistently objected to the Thames Gateway road bridge scheme since 2000 and has helped raise awareness of the social and environmental problems associated with it.
Friends of the Earth has called for investment in alternative transport options like public transport, walking and cycling to improve access for people to jobs and key services without the consequences of increased traffic, noise and air pollution and less safety.
And when we talk here about public transport, as an example, the investment in such schemes must also make it possible for people to travel across the country for a fraction of the cost of flying and not the other way around.
It just does not compute that a rail journey from London to Birmingham in peak hours should be more than 4-times as much as flying from a South London airport.
While Friends of the Earth claim, in some way, that the London Mayor is against a river crossing the truth is that Boris Johnson's 2008 election manifesto for transport on the Thames Gateway bridge said:
"I support in principle the need for an extra river crossing upstream from Tower Bridge to ease congestion and aid economic growth. However, any scheme will have
to deal with the issues on both sides of the river in terms of traffic management, safeguarding the environment and public transport usage. The current scheme for a Thames Gateway Bridge does not currently fulfill these criteria; therefore I do not support the scheme in its present form."
This does not mean that he is against another new river crossing. More the opposite. Hence pressure must be kept up to work on alternatives to motor transport around and across the Capital rather than to always, again and again, emphasise the car and the truck.
Other options must be made more viable and must receive a much greater support than roads and ever more roads.
© M Smith (Veshengro), November 2008
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Mayor's decision to scrap Thames Gateway road bridge welcomed
