London cyclists who use the Greenwich Foot Tunnel as a means of getting across the Thames have reacted angrily to suggestions that it might be closed for almost a year.
The tunnel, which links Greenwich to Tower Hamlets, is to undergo refurbishment works beginning this September, which will last until March 2011.
But according to Greenwich.co.uk, a ferry company that has been asked to tender for a replacement service across the river has been told by Greenwich Council that the tunnel will be completely closed for between 10 months and a year.
Some 1.5 million people use the tunnel every year, and at its peak accommodates 250 cyclists an hour. It is part of National Cycle Route 1, linking Dover to Inverness.
Anthony Austin, chair of Greenwich Cyclists, said: “There’s no point in closing the tunnel. It’s not clear they need to close the stairs when they are doing the lifts. We cyclists have come to use it as an absolutely essential link.”
When the tunnel closes, cyclists - who are not allowed on the Docklands Light Railway - face an eight to ten-mile diversion to reach Canary Wharf from south London. At a meeting with cycle activists, Peter Brookes, deputy leader of the council, said that any replacement ferry service would “not be frequent.”
The DLR link will itself be closed on several weekends over the next eight months as part of the three-car upgrade programme.
The council says the closure is intended to provide “state-of-the-art conditions” in the tunnels in the run-up to the Olympics.
The frame is metal, so doesnt need the cables from the battery to the motor, just pass the current through the chainstay
Could make a crass joke about how youre only supposed to flip pancakes today, but i wont...
So who's funding this judicial review? Follow the money road.cc.....
I can accept this under one condition:...
I wouldn't worry too much about the locks being picked, in nearly all cases of bike theft, those Ninja moped gangs, the only things they can pick...
"There's some complex engineering in these things"
They want to pick on The Others in general, rather than a specific group. Immigrants can hate Others just as much as Nigel Farage does.
There's no doubting how bad the sport must have been when a banker feels moral enough to criticise...!
I don't think they've come in from that end at all - all three approaches are bollarded, and I don't think there's room to get through. I think...
More clearance damnit!!!