«
»

Greenwich Council Do Something Good

Sit down, folks. I have an announcement to make.

I am delighted to put my full support behind something Greenwich Council are doing.

No – really. I don’t always see eye to eye with them, but on their latest campaign, I’m right behind them. It’s just possible it’s pie-in-the-sky – but full marks to them for having a go.

They are trying to persuade Boris Johnson to give the same support to the riverboats that he does to the rest of London Transport. They want Oyster Cards to be useable on them, there to be a more frequent service, and, most importantly, for them to have the same kind of subsidy as is currently given to the buses and tubes.

This last one is the biggie, of course. As things stand, the Mayor’s current subsidy is due to end in July – but Greenwich Council want him not just to renew it, but to increase it. And good on them for trying.

I urge you to join in with this – the link to sign up is here.

Not such good news about the disgrace that is Greenwich Pier. For nostalgia purposes, here is the slightly scruffy but very sweet Victorian waiting room that was demolished a few months ago. It was, apparently, unsaveable, though try telling that to the guys in sunny St Kitts who have bought it to restore over there…

What we were getting instead was a monster, albeit a monster by a famous name. But Stephen tells me that things have gone a bit pear-shaped. The place has been turned into a building site, with tourists forced to queue round the block in-between rows of scaffolding and boards, the little waiting room has gone – and one of the future tenants has withdrawn support, putting the project as it stands into dodgy financial territory.
Apparently Conran are currently “working up an option.” So the chances are that now we don’t just get a monster, we get a cheap monster.

It does sound as though whatever happens, though, it will start to happen soon. And maybe that is a good thing. Anything would be better than what we have now. And perhaps, after a discreet amount of time, we can quietly lose the monster, and plead with St Kitts for our little Victorian building back…


This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 8:28 am and is filed under Campaigns, Debates, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.