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CLLR IAN CLEMENT WRITES
There was great news last month, with the opening of the new Thames Innovation Centre.
The TIC is key to our plans to provide new and better jobs for local people.
You’ll find it next to a 67-acre development site behind the Business Academy Bexley. It offers support and first class facilities for start-up businesses and innovative small to medium-sized companies.
I am proud that the Council has been able to make this fantastic new resource a reality, and particularly of the great team that is involved in running it. I hope it proves a magnet for the kind of dynamic, innovative and forward-thinking businesses Bexley needs to offer modern skilled jobs to local people.
We’ve also had good news on our plans to regenerate Erith town centre.
Argos will be opening a store in the Riverside Shopping Centre. It’s a great result for the centre’s new owners and I hope it will help them let all the remaining units.
The other welcome news is the start of our search for private sector development partners for the Erith Western Gateway, for which we’ve enlisted the help of English Partnerships.
It’s a massive area, which stretches from the Riverside Gardens and the old Riverside Baths to the Town Hall. Our plan it to create a new riverside community, including a hotel, new homes and leisure facilities, to bring new life and new jobs to the town.
There will much more consultation with local people when we see the ideas that our potential development partners come up with.
Make sure you have your say on the plans when the time comes. We need your input if we are going to make our dream of making Erith a thriving riverside community a reality.
MP John Austin Writes
Many local people will have been greatly inconvenienced by the recent decision by Transport for London (TfL) to end the peak hour contra-flow in the Blackwall Tunnel which allowed two-way traffic in one of the tunnels. TfL, however, was responding to very firm advice from the Police of the potential risk of a head-on collision.
Regrettably, local Tories have used the decision to have a go at the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, and to suggest it is all part of some secret plan to deliberately create traffic chaos as an excuse to introduce tolls. This idea is all a bit too far-fetched, even for local Tories. It is true that there have been some discussions about introducing tolls but this idea has been around for many years as a possible way of reducing traffic and congestion.
But I wonder what local Tories, and other critics of TfL, would have said if TfL had ignored the police advice and a serious accident had occurred. There have been a number of less serious accidents recently, but CCTV video recordings show horrendous pictures of lunatic drivers overtaking when two-way traffic is operating in the tunnel. I do agree with the Tories that such drivers should be prosecuted – and in my view banned from driving – and TfL and the police should take action on this but TfL could not possibly have ignored the police advice on the potential danger. They advised that in the event of a head-on collision, the emergency services would not be able to reach the scene and the risk of a fire or explosion was high. In such an event there could be hundreds of lives lost and the damage to the tunnel could result in its complete closure for months and months, bringing even greater traffic chaos.
Of course the decision has caused traffic congestion and long queues, with increased pollution, and has diverted traffic on to other routes. It also means that all the traffic forecasts for the proposed Thames Gateway Bridge need to be re-assessed. That is why, in Parliament, I have called for the re-opening of the Public Inquiry so that these matters can be addressed. (Previously I have asked for the Inquiry to be re-opened to take account of the possible impact of increased tolls at the Dartford Crossing).
It is also opportune to re-examine the original proposals for 3 new river crossings in the area – these were a third bore (or bridge) at Blackwall, a rail crossing at Woolwich and the Thames Gateway Bridge at Thamesmead. The third Blackwall crossing, which in my view should have taken priority over a new bridge at Thamesmead, appears to have been forgotten.
Although all new roads generate more traffic, an additional crossing at Blackwall would be primarily ease existing congestion, whereas a completely new road bridge at Thamesmead would be more likely to generate new traffic.
I would welcome Gateway readers’ views on the issue of a third tunnel or bridge at Blackwall and on the Thames Gateway Bridge Inquiry.
Readers can write to me: John Austin MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or email: austinj@parliament.uk
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Jamelia will be headlining this year’s Trust Thamesmead Summer Festival which co-insides with Thamesmead’s 40th birthday. Keeping in theme, acts from the last four decades, including Showaddywaddy, The Real Thing, Sybil, Antony Costa, The Honeyz and Trust Thamesmead’s T Factor winners Audio Hawk will all be performing on stage.
Click here for for more details |
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