The Labour Council’s failure to reopen Hammersmith Bridge for four long years is a travesty. The Bridge has been closed since April 2019 owing to structural concerns, despite the Council having stated in September 2016 that there were no concerns over its structural integrity.
The failure to reopen the Bridge forms part of Labour’s anti-car agenda. It is clear that the Labour party is now stead-fast against the use of private cars as evidenced by Mayer Khan’s ULEZ scheme, the extortionate parking charges forced on residents and Labour’s willingness to impose traffic schemes across the whole borough without any proper consultation.
To make matters worse the Labour party is destroying public transport whilst keeping expensive employee perks that could pay for the Bridge. The Government has had to bail out TfL to the tune of billions of pounds because of Mayer Khan’s financial mismanagement, he has overseen over 100 strikes, is now cutting historic bus routes like the number 11 yet continues to hand out over 54,000 nominee passes a year valued at approximately £160m. One year’s worth of those employee perks would be enough to pay for the re-opening of the Bridge.
Labour just don’t want residents to be able to move around our great capital. When one takes everything together, it is clear that the Labour party would prefer that residents of London stay at home and don’t enjoy all of its rich attractions including restaurants, culture, music, and sports.
By contrast, the Conservative Government is doing everything that it can to convince the Labour Council to reopen the Bridge. The Government has not only agreed to pay a third directly but has also agreed to pay TfL’s third owing to their precarious financial position. The Labour Council object to paying anything despite (i) the fact that it is an asset from which they intend to generate an income in the form of tolls, and (ii) having committed over £500m to various capital projects throughout the borough over the next 4 years.
Enough is enough; the Conservatives are committed to re-opening the Bridge! The funding is available and there is a clear structural plan to ensure that the Bridge could be re-opened for cars owing to a temporary ‘bridge within a bridge’ structure. It is time for the Council to put forward a business serious plan that ensures that the Bridge is open as soon as possible and restored to its full glory within the next few years; not by 2030 as the Council have suggested. This would be a key priority for the Conservatives in administration.
