First, a very BIG thanks to all residents who went to the Nine Elms Bridge promoters’ exhibition at St Saviour’s Church Hall and Pimlico Academy to tell the promoters what the people of Pimlico think about a bridge landing on one of our few riverside spaces. We hope that the promoters have gone away knowing that the majority of Pimlico people do not want a bridge.
However, we need to make sure, through using the Council’s own power of Scrutiny as well as the expertise of our officers, that their proposals are scrupulously examined. At the Full Council Meeting earlier this month, Cllr Angela Harvey got a renewed commitment from the Leader of the Council, Cllr Nickie Aiken, (shown above holding the banner with Cllr Angela Harvey and other local people) that the Council will continue to the next stage of the Public Enquiry as soon as the promoters of the bridge deliver their Technical & Environmental assessment.
Your Conservative councillors have been fighting this proposal since it was first mooted in 2012. The first meeting of the Public Enquiry took place in January last year at Westminster City Hall when hundreds of local people were in the public gallery to show how the overwhelming number of Pimlico’s residents do NOT want the bridge.
Two examples of the key facts uncovered when taking evidence included Transport for London telling us that a). the bridge promoters had not asked for any work to be done to see where people coming across the bridge would actually go to and b). that it would improve cyclists’ time by at most under a minute and possibly as little as 8 seconds.
We had expected the technical assessment to be delivered during the first part of 2016, but we are still waiting. Now the bridge exhibition has taken place we think this may come forward soon.
When it is received the next stage of the public enquiry may go forward, and may last several months, as the Council tests and scrutinises the various documents, including environmental and technical assessments, and the planning application itself, all of which the sponsors of the bridge Wandsworth Council are legally required to produce.
To make sure your concerns are reflected in this process please contact Councillor Angela Harvey at [email protected]. Opposition to the proposed Nine-Elms Bridge enjoys cross-party support and the keen support of local residents associations. Meanwhile we have got the support of the Mayor of London.
