Transport for London is not interested in taking over the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, a Greenwich councillor has said.
A petition calling for TfL to take over the two Thames crossings – which are currently run by Greenwich Council – passed 1,000 signatures on Friday afternoon.
But Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, the interim cabinet member for transport, said he had been told by Will Norman, the mayor’s walking and cycling commissioner, that TfL did not want the job – and accused a councillor who raised the issue of playing “political games”.
Lifts at both the Greenwich and Woolwich tunnels have been regularly broken since a botched refurbishment of the crossings in 2011. The northern lift at the Woolwich tunnel has been out of action for three years.
Maureen O’Mara, a former Greenwich Labour councillor, and Karin Tearle, a Green Party candidate, set up a petition focusing on the Greenwich Foot Tunnel three weeks ago, but have since widened it to take in Woolwich too.
Giving the tunnels to TfL would return them to London-wide government. They were built by the old London County Council to help dock workers, but when its successor, the Greater London Council, was abolished in 1986, ownership passed to Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Newham with Greenwich taking responsibility for maintenance.
When TfL was formed in 2000, it took back the Blackwall and Rotherhithe road tunnels, but the foot tunnels stayed with Greenwich, which has struggled to maintain the crossings and has had a difficult relationship with its neighbours north of the Thames.
Only last month, O’Byrne Mulligan complained publicly that his counterpart at Tower Hamlets – Shafi Ahmed – had not responded to an invite to a meeting to discuss the Greenwich tunnel, and called for residents to email Ahmed to ask why. Meanwhile disagreements with Newham held up work to fix the Woolwich crossing’s broken lift.
Ahmed has now responded to O’Byrne Mulligan. Tower Hamlets Council did not respond to requests for comment from The Greenwich Wire asking why Ahmed had not replied to his colleague in Greenwich, but we understand that his response followed our two emails to its press office, telling the east London council we were planning to write a story about the issue.
Quizzed about the issue by Majella Anning, the leader of the Independent and Green group, at the full council meeting on Wednesday, O’Byrne Mulligan said: “Myself and the leader [of the council] met with Will Norman from TfL, and we discussed this exact matter.
“That’s the reason I know TfL are not interested in taking on either of the tunnels. Accepting that TfL aren’t interested in taking on these assets, we are focusing on realistic solutions rather than political games.
“Work is under way at the minute to repair the north and south lift at the Greenwich foot tunnel, and both should be operational before the end of the year. The Woolwich foot tunnel is undergoing major works on both lifts, which should see them operational by the spring.
“At that meeting with TfL, we went through a detailed plan on the short, medium, and long-term plans that we have to return the tunnels to the status that we know they should be for our residents and for people across London. I wrote to the cabinet member responsible for transport in Tower Hamlets about seven or eight weeks ago. I’d like to thank those members of the public who heeded my request to urge Councillor Ahmed to meet with me because he has now agreed to meet with me.
“We will hopefully be confirming a meeting for November where we will look to begin the work to discuss some of the governance arrangements that are required to agree some of the works in the long term to replace the lifts fully at the Greenwich tunnel. And we’ll be carrying out similar engagement with Newham.”
O’Mara said: “We genuinely believe London’s cross-transport authority is better placed with its resources, capacity and clout with contractors to manage both of these key cross-river links for their 5,000 users a day. We appreciate the efforts of Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Newham, but we think this is best managed more efficiently by one authority rather than three cash-strapped London boroughs.”
Asked about O’Byrne Mulligan’s reference to “political games”, O’Mara said: “Do you see any party political reference on our leaflet at all? These leaflets are paid for by myself and Karin. We are local residents who’ve lived in this borough for many, many years and we want to see it thrive. I am not a member of the Green Party – it is my money that is paying for these leaflets and we’ll continue to pay for these leaflets.
“We’re people asking for a Labour-run transport authority to take over from a Labour council. Where’s the politics in that?”
A TfL spokesperson told The Greenwich Wire: “There are long-standing arrangements in place between the boroughs of Newham, Greenwich and Tower Hamlets for the management of the foot tunnels. While we have no plans to take over the management of the tunnels, we continue to engage in discussions on their operation and work with boroughs to support improvement.”
Amended at 10.30am to correct Will Norman’s job title: he is the walking and cycling commissioner, not the deputy mayor for transport, who is Seb Dance.
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