Sian Berry, the Green candidate for Mayor of London, has expressed support for South East London residents raising funds for a legal challenge to the Enderby Wharf cruise terminal.
She said today she fully backs the crowdfunding initiative by the East Greenwich Residents Association, which claims the proposed terminal in a dense residential area will create pollution equivalent to nearly 700 permanently idling heavy goods vehicles.
Sian said: “Air pollution in London is now a bigger killer than smoking. Since it is already at illegal levels, whoever is the next Mayor of London will be breaking the law if they don’t do everything they possibly can to bring air pollution down.
“In that context, it’s astonishing that a Labour local authority and the Conservative Mayor have united to force a cruise terminal on the unwilling residents of Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs, ignoring pleas for the hotelling ships to use clean onshore power rather than dirty diesel fuel.
“I congratulate the brave resident who is standing up to Greenwich Council by applying for judicial review, and I fully support the wider community in its bid to raise financial backing. If I’m elected to City Hall in May, I will endeavour to rectify this mess so that local people – not to mention the occupants of the new homes being built next to the terminal – are not put in danger.”
Notes:
- When the Royal Borough of Greenwich held a public consultation on its revised plans for the Enderby Wharf cruise terminal last summer, 117 individuals and groups from both sides of the river lodged letters of objection. There were just three submissions in favour. The council nevertheless approved the plans on 21 July 2015.
- In August 2015, Mayor Boris Johnson gave the cruise terminal the green light despite residents and community groups urging him to call it in. But just over a month later, under questioning from Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones, he admitted the hotelling ships would “unquestionably add to mono-nitrogen oxides (Nox) and to other pollution in the area”. He defended his decision not to call the scheme in by saying “local people are broadly supportive of the scheme”.