Monday, June 11, 2007

No change in the flow

There's been an announcement from the London assembly saying that the tidal flow lane for the Blackwall Tunnel will not be reinstated, it's now permanent.

You can read the press release here.

What's actually pretty interesting is this quote from it:
"a spokesperson from Greenwich said the decision was never fully discussed with them."

So far the line from the council has been to say that the only heard about it two days before it came into effect, Council Leader Chris Roberts is quoted as saying the council "was not consulted by TfL over the decision to end the Blackwall Tunnel contraflow arrangement."

So does "never fully discussed" allow for that memo that came out showing that TFL did talk to the council about it back in January? When they said that they weren't consulted over it are they now trying to say they meant that they weren't consulted "fully"?

TFL also seem to have shifted a bit in their postion. The press release has them saying:
"Transport for London said the lack of consultation was because an accident in the Blackwall Tunnel on 17 April brought forward the date for when the tidal flow would cease, only leaving time to make a few phone calls and issue a press release."

No mention of it being in the works for months before hand, an inconvenient truth?

It looks like both sides of this argument are shifting their goalposts in towards each other. Greenwich Council aren't claiming to have had two days notice and TFL are making it sound like they didn't tell people about it back in January.

Look here for more information on that memo.

Edited to Add:
The meeting that resulted in the press release above coming out was held on the 7th of June. The minutes don't yet seem to be available. However the document about the tunnel that the meeting discussed is, and it's interesting.

The Mayor's reported timeline for the closure includes the statement "Discussions were held with Greenwich Council in December 2006 and the Highways Agency in January 2007."

So Greenwich Council weren't told about it in January but a month earlier.

I really want to see the minutes from the meeting, I don't think they'll be out until July when the next meeting approves them. Curses.

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