Silvertown Tunnel campaign needs your support

Call for a demo against the tunnel:

Stop Silvertown Tunnel: mass demo, Sat 26 Feb

We invite you to join us on the Mass Demo against the Silvertown Tunnel: Saturday 26 February in Newham, starting 2pm. Assemble at the Crystal, the London Assembly’s new City Hall, Royal Docks, E16 1ZE.

Please help us grow the demo - we want the broadest coalition, and as many cyclists and cycling organisations as possible:

• Circulate the facebook event
  
• Spread the word to other London groups if you think they'd be interested - we are sending to the six of you who are most local
  
• Use the attached graphic on social media. Tag @SilvertownTn on Twitter
  
• Agree to name your groups as a supporter of the demonstration and let us know
  
• We are printing flyers and stickers. Let us know if you need some.
  ► The demonstration comes at the end of a week of action against the tunnel project (20-26 February). We will send out more details soon!
  
  

► We are keen to get a big cycling presence during the week too. It would be great if you and other cycling organisations, and cargo bike groups, would like to join together and organise an event highlighting the fact that crossing the river on a bike is so difficult, and impossibe for cargo bikes. If so, please get in touch with us about timing so we can be sure events won't clash.

► A video of our campaign planning meeting on Saturday 22 January is here.

Our campaign is gathering momentum as the tunnel looms closer. Together we can show the Mayor of London (who has the power to cancel), the London Assembly, Transport for London and all Londoners the damage Silvertown Tunnel would cause. Here’s some background info.

Silvertown Tunnel is the UK’s biggest road project now underway: a planned £2.2bn 4-lane tunnel under the Thames, from the O2 in Greenwich Peninsula to Newham. Construction has started but until the giant boring machine starts work in the spring it’s not too late to stop it. The HGV-friendly tunnel would bring increased traffic to deprived areas of E & SE London, pushing congestion back from Blackwall Tunnel to already jammed feeder roads past homes and schools.

Silvertown Tunnel would be a disaster for:

• Health, especially children’s. Both sides of the tunnel already suffer from illegal air pollution. Many schools lie near the tunnel feeder roads. Newham is the UK’s most polluted borough with nearly 100 deaths a year due to dirty air. Other nearby boroughs also suffer, e.g. children in Tower Hamlets have lungs 10% smaller than the norm.
  
• Social, racial and environmental justice. The areas most affected include some of London’s most deprived and ethnically diverse.
  
• London’s carbon emission targets - threatening Mayor Sadiq Khan’s goal of a 27% fall in vehicle traffic by 2030.
  
• Cyclists, pedestrians, cargo bikers, users of electric mobility vehicles - clean, green, active transport in London. None of these will be allowed through the tunnel. Cyclists have no good options to cross the river, cargo bikes none at all.
  
  • It now looks like TfL will have to cut millions from its active transport budget - cycle lanes, healthy streets etc.
    
• Transport for London’s ability to restore pre-Covid levels of public transport, let alone continue with new projects to get people out of cars. E.g. DLR extensions to Eltham and Thamesmead and a Bakerloo Line extension to Lewisham.
  
  

Please join us. The meeting point is easy to get to - it’s half a mile from Canning Town tube, and only a few yards from Royal Victoria Dock DLR or the Greenwich/Newham cable car across the river from Greenwich. OK, not so easy for cyclists south of the river - one reason we'll be marching!

Bring bikes, banners, costumes, friends - whatever works for your group.

Contact us with any questions or ideas.

Hope to see you there!

All the best
Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition

Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition includes community groups, environmentalists, trade unions, political groups and residents of Newham and Greenwich.

My guess would be that the funding for this is ringfenced and not subject to current TfL cuts. I've long had the impression that Khan had massive political pressure applied to him by the Tories to force this one through, but of course I'm only speculating and that may not be the case. If anything should fall now that cuts have to be made, it is obviously this project.

I can't make it on the 26th, but perhaps someone here feels strongly enough about it to go along.