The campaigners who pushed Transport for London to fix the broken escalators at Cutty Sark DLR station have now turned their sights to the out-of-order lifts in the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.
Maureen O’Mara, a former Labour councillor, and Karin Tearle, a Green Party candidate, have launched a petition calling for control of the foot tunnel to be transferred from Greenwich Council to Transport for London.
Lifts in the foot tunnel have been regularly broken since a botched refurbishment by Greenwich 14 years ago. On Friday night, both lifts were broken – one having been out of action since June 30 – forcing users to walk up the stairs.
Last month one tunnel user, frustrated with the lack of reliable information about whether the lifts were working, launched his own web app so users could share their current status.
Both Greenwich and Tower Hamlets councils own the crossing between Cutty Sark Gardens and Island Gardens, but Greenwich takes responsibility for maintenance.
O’Mara and Tearle – whose Escalate Now! campaign put the spotlight on four years of broken escalators at the DLR station – say they have had enough and that TfL, with its experience of running the London Underground, should take charge. The Cutty Sark escalators are now being replaced, with the station due to reopen next spring.
Handing the tunnel to TfL would return it to London-wide government. The crossing was built by the London County Council 113 years ago for dock workers, and passed to its successor, the Greater London Council, in 1965.
But when the GLC was abolished in 1986, the tunnel’s ownership was passed to Greenwich and Tower Hamlets. A similar arrangement was made for the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, which has a similar history, with ownership going to Greenwich and Newham. Greenwich was given responsibility for maintaining both crossings.
When London-wide government returned in 2000, TfL was given the road tunnels at Blackwall and Rotherhithe, and the Woolwich Ferry, but Greenwich kept control of the foot tunnels – despite an awkward relationship with its neighbours north of the river.
The Escalate Now! petition – which was launched on Friday night – only covers the Greenwich tunnel.
O’Mara said: “The north lift has been out of operation now since early June and despite many promises from the council to get the lift fixed , it remains out of service.
“Their most recent promise can be seen on the council website where they promised work to fix the lift would be completed in around two weeks from around September 23. As of today, October 10 the lift is still out of order. We believe enough is enough. It is time for TfL to take over the running of this cross-borough pedestrian and cyclist route.”
One of the Woolwich lifts has been out of action for more than three years. Asked why the petition only covered the Greenwich tunnel, O’Mara said: “Bluntly, we do not have the physical resources to cover both tunnels. However the same argument applies to the Woolwich tunnel and common sense would dictate that what’s good for Greenwich is also good for Woolwich.”
TfL has been contacted for comment. Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, Greenwich’s interim cabinet member for transport, said he had written to his counterpart at Tower Hamlets, Shafi Ahmed, to request a meeting to discuss the tunnel a month ago, but not received a reply, and called on tunnel users to write to Ahmed about the issue.
He added that the council was meeting TfL this month to discuss the long-term future of both Greenwich and Woolwich tunnels. “We have long been ready to engage with all stakeholders on how we can safeguard the tunnels long term, which are vital pedestrian and active travel crossings of the Thames, and an undoubted strategic asset for our city,” he said.
The petition can be found at change.org.
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Updated at 4.40pm on Tuesday with Greenwich response.
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