While welcoming the cancellation of the Thames Gateway six lane road Bridge, Darren Johnson will use next weeks Mayor’s Question Time to interrogate the Mayor on the cancellation of a number of important public transport schemes in London.
The Mayor today cancelled proposals for an Oxford Street Tram, East London Transit, Greenwich Waterfront Transit, Docklands Light Rail extension to Dagenham Dock, extensions to Croydon Tramlink, the East London Line extension from Surrey Quays and New Cross to Clapham Junction, and important public space proposals at Parliament Square, Euston Station, Victoria Embankment, and the route between central London and the Olympic park.
"The Mayor has today put London’s transport in reverse gear and pressed the accelerator to the floor. The cancellation of so many important public transport schemes not only ends the hopes of many London neighbourhoods to be put on London’s transport map, it also shows that all the Mayor’s talk of spending London out of recession is just that. Talk."
"This backward looking approach is best demonstrated by the abandonment of schemes to significantly improve London’s public spaces. By placing the car over the needs of pedestrians, the Mayor is reinforcing the planning errors of the last forty years when he should be correcting them."
On the Thames Gateway Bridge, Darren said:
"Scrapping this new road across the Thames is good news for the environment and for the local people who have spent years fighting this proposal. It was the single biggest mistake of the previous Mayor, and this decision vindicates the hard work of the local people and experts who successfully opposed this bridge at the public inquiry."