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Another one of what will be fairly regular stories about this to keep it in the press. Interesting to see a cost figure of £46m for a full repair of the bridge.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hammersmith-bridge-closure-residents-protest-a4539471.html
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It's really amazing. Government bleeds councils and TfL dry of funding. Hammersmith Bridge has to be closed because of this. Government makes an announcement:
Mr Shapps was said by sources to have “lost patience” with Labour-run Hammersmith and Fulham council, which owns the bridge.
[...]
Mr Shapps said today: “When it comes to the Hammersmith Bridge there has been a lack of leadership in London on re-opening this vital bridge.
Useless idiots (in the Government).
Tony Devenish, the Conservative member of the London Assembly for the area, said today: "I welcome the Government's intervention to fix Hammersmith Bridge. After 17 months of Hammersmith and Fulham council and the Mayor of London dithering, delaying and failing to fix the bridge, we desperately needed someone to step in and sort it out.
Party politics can be so shit.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hammersmith-bridge-taskforce-a4543671.html
The truth is that there has been no lack of leadership in London at all, but simply no money. I will grant that the stupid decision to build the Silvertown Tunnel has something to do with that, but that, after all, is a Johnson-era project, and I could well imagine that Khan had to accept doing it or face even worse financial problems. Then again, it might genuinely be his decision, but as far as I know the Government supports it.
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More silly politicking over a relatively simple issue that isn't demonstrably the fault of any one party--while H&F has mostly been Labour in its history, it was Conservative-controlled for eight years between 2006 and 2014.
Just ditch the party politics and do something.
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I suspect there'll be a steady stream of such articles. Key quote:
Despairing shopkeepers and restaurant owners based on either side of the crippled Hammersmith Bridge today spoke of how trade had collapsed by as much as half since it was closed to pedestrians and cyclists last month.
(my emphasis)
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hammersmith-bridge-apocalyptic-trade-a4546791.html
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... and the next instalment:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hammersmith-bridge-closure-school-run-delays-a4547726.html
I wonder how many angles of covering the same story are left, but I guess we'll see in the next few days. :)
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There was a story in the Standard's print version yesterday that reheated the idea of a temporary ferry service, but I can't find it on the web-site, which is frequently odd in what's available there and how it's tagged. For convenience, here's the tag for it, in case you want to read daily updates by Philippa Space without much news:
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Here's yet another 'playing politics' story, headlined, quite nonsensically, with what a Tory London Assembly member said to Khan. It turns out that Khan was on to the Transport Secretary a year ago but nothing was done--London patently not having the funds to do anything.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sadiq-khan-man-up-hammersmith-bridge-reopening-a4549756.html
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And there I was thinking that Standard hacks were slacking today. :) How wrong you can be.
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Look forward to tomorrow's. What will it be? 'Hammersmith Bridge swaying in high winds'? 'Hammersmith Bridge was smithed with hammers'? (I know 'to smith' is not a word but I'm in the mood for inventing words.) 'Hammersmith Bridge de-stabilised by 22 LFGSS Bridges Rides'? 'Hammersmith Bridge to be renamed the Cowan-Shapps bridge as no-one wants to take responsibility'? Stay tuned.
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After a deeply distressing Hammersmith Bridge stories hiatus over the week-end, fortunately normal service has been resumed:
We are fully entitled to daily updates every weekday.
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We seem to be hitting a regular groove of Hammersmith Bridge stories again. This one's a belter:
Translated, this announcement means that for all of Shapps' silly posturing, there isn't enough funding to do the job more quickly, and that this is a result of at least a decade of complete neglect by the Government of the issue. This is the sort of issue that local authorities are powerless to take on and that TfL certainly can't take on, having been plunged into a funding crisis. Needless to say, the previous Mayor of London did bugger all about it, even though he was a wee bit closer to the Government of the time than the current Mayor.
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Expect more stories that add tiny snippets of information to the previous story while repeating the latter. I really hope it'll be a daily diet or we'll starve.
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Some real news for once. This is pretty clever and might just work.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hammersmith-bridge-double-decker-crossing-b79311.html
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Two new stories on Hammersmith Bridge--disappointingly, nothing on the above ^; maybe it's too pie-in-the-sky and the ferry is the preferred option, as indicated by the appropriately-named David Rowe's comments (here's hoping the ferry won't be a roweboat):
More than 1,400 west London residents and businesses have stampeded to back a planning application for a new ferry wharf next to stricken Hammersmith Bridge.
It's just a good thing this hasn't happened on the bridge, or that might might have done for it.
The study on people's well-being is very interesting--loss or lack of urban connectivity is a serious problem in many ways, and not only where the specific problem has been that Barnes has long relied on its proximity to the major centre of Hammersmith. It is also a major cause of urban inequality.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hammersmith-bridge-closure-impact-mental-health-b919305.html
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I missed this story--as with much of this, this seems to be mainly an exercise in political buck-passing, with serious doubts remaining as to how seriously one should take claims that there isn't quite such a serious problem as first feared:
It really is completely ridiculous and irresponsible to turn this into a political football. You can't help the impression that some of the Tories quoted in reports see this as a chance to regain control of H&F council.
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But the proposed route is far from straightforward
https://www.fulhamreachboatclub.co.uk/we-need-a-ferry-but-not-at-harrods-wharf
Fulham Reach is an amazing club that does loads of work with local state schools and is making rowing much more inclusive Would be a real shame if a route was chosen that made operating the club impossible (and as a frequent rower on that stretch of the Thames it is super tricky - the stream really picks up past their pontoon and launching or turning small boats between a bridge and a busy ferry would be treacherous.)
A functioning pedestrian bridge would clearly be ideal - doesn’t really feel like the mark of dynamic society that we’re replacing the bridges (that replaced ferries) with ferries
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Agree with this completely. I'm not a rower, but a mate coaches at Fulham Reach and it's great to see the a wider demographic getting involved with rowing to balance out the more traditional clubs/schools in the Putney to Chiswick stretch.
If, as it seems to be the case, the Bridge is going to be under repair for five years plus a pedestrian/cycling crossing needs to be the focus. It's always been a busy foot crossing and I just can't see a ferry being a practical solution.
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Oh, I agree, too--I doubt any such proposals will be entertained seriously once they get put before people who know what they're doing. You always get a flurry of suggestions for just about anything in such cases, often under the banner that 'something must be done'. I'm sure a ferry service would already have been launched if (a) it was easy and (b) idiots stopped trying to play politics with it.
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Hammersmith Bridge is open again
Posted by
@skydancer
tower bridge refused to close for 90 mins today. is there something more sinister going on ? are the powers that be north of the river planning a breakaway republic and we're practicing closing all river crossings to stop any influx from south of the river.
one morning we'll all wake up to armed militias manning the bridges and a declaration of independence for north londonistan ....... we can dream