East London Line - negotiations update

So, the current situation is that Boris Johnson and the government are still hammering things out over the funding for the East London Line extension through Peckham, but things have moved on somewhat.

Previously Boris said the funding gap was £30m and said he'd stump up £15m if the government paid the other £15m. The government pointed out they'd already given him £40BILLION for transport in London, but would consider his proposal.

As I understand it the government has now agreed to hand over an extra £15m, but are insisting that the new Surrey Canal Road station is reinstated in the plans. It seems that to reduce the cost of the extension to the bare minimum Boris had planned to cut the new station from the initial works. The new station would be between Queens Rd and Surrey Quays and serve parts of Bermondsey and Deptford as well as Millwall Football Club.

I'm not sure how much this increases the cost by, but I can certainly understand why Deptford MP Joan Ruddock is pushing so hard for it. The area is really run down and has terrible transport links. There are plans to improve the area, but they need the new station to be financially viable. Whatever Boris says, if the station doesn't get built as part of the main works the likelihood is that it will never happen.

So now we wait. Will Boris find the extra money? Will the government back down and let him drop Surrey Canal Road Station? Will the whole scheme fall through? Who knows?

I think Boris should stump up the extra money, he's cancelled so many projects for south and east London that I really think he owes us (though I'd rather have the extension without Surrey Canal Rd than not at all).
And when he says he can't afford it let's remember that he can afford

• £2.8m extra PER YEAR to replace perfectly good bendy buses with ordinary (not routemaster) double deckers on the 38 bus route
• Estimated £20m extra PER YEAR to 'debendify' all the bendy bus routes (thanks Boriswatch)
  
• £50-70m PER YEAR income to be lost by removing the western extension of the congestion charge zone

So let's not be in any doubt that he can find money in his budget when he really wants to.

Further reading
South London Press article
January update from TfL in response to Val Shawcross
Kulveer Ranger (Mayor's Transport Adviser) comments at GLA Transport Committee

Save the South London Line Update

There was enormous support across South London for the campaign against the divertion of the South London Line rail service (London Bridge - Victoria via Queens Road Station).

Our London Assembly Member Val Shawcross took the matter up with Mayor Ken Livingstone and secured his agreement for a proper survey to be done of the use of the line. TfL London Rail are carrying out this survey which will give us not just the numbers of passengers using the line but also the purpose of their journey, their origin and final destination. We hope to have this information in a month or two and then meet again with Network Rail.

So if you see people on Queens Road doing a survey please do take part!

Street Drinkers

The numbers of street drinkers seems to have fallen considerably at Queens Rd. They were gathering near the bus stop opposite Asylum Road and generally making a nuisance of themselves - not a big deal when there were one or two, but sometimes there were as many as 20!

Our local police team have been working hard and the council has put a fence up on the wall they liked to sit on. I dare say the colder weather is also a major factor so we wait to see whether they return.

CANCELLED - Have your say on the future of Queens Road

UPDATE

THIS CONSULTATION HAS BEEN CANCELLED AS THERE IS A COUNCIL BYELECTION IN RIVERSIDE WARD AND AS A RESULT LOTS OF LEGAL RESTRICTIONS ON THE COUNCIL. IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR THE NEW YEAR.


A number of readers have asked me what's going to replace the now demolished Woodene blocks on Queens Road. And now I have an answer (of sorts).

The council is holding a consultation event/exhibition to allow members of the public to have their say on redevelopment options.

Location
Bells Gardens Community Hall,
19 Bullier Close, SE15

Opening hours
Friday 30 Nov 2pm - 8pm
Saturday 1 Dec 11am - 4pm