Ok, not strictly a purely Lewisham issue, but I’m betting many of us use this bridge frequently. I know I do. And, earlier this month, we urged you to sign the LCC motion calling for the 20 mph limit to be retained. And, as a Londoner, I’ve always felt that the bridges and the river belong to us all. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always feel like that on our beautiful river crossings. Time and again, the more vulnerable road user is made to feel they are in the way and shouldn’t be there. Then TfL get the chance to change that on at least one of the bridges and end up actually making it even worse for those road users, than it was before. Cue a lot of positive action
to make them aware of this, using some of the time honoured processes of democracy of which we should be proud (non violent direct action, writing letters, creating petitions, lobbying politicians). Then just a few people show their disregard for both that democratic process and for those of us who choose to walk or ride through our city. They walk out of the meeting discussing the issue, thus rendering it inquorate so it can’t even be voted on. How manipulative and cycnical is that? And those people are at the heart of the democratic process itself, GLA members. Yet they seem to have little respect for it.
LCC are not planning to leave it there. This won’t be the last you hear of the issue.
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/conservative-assembly-members-shun-blackfriars-debate
There’s a thread about this on LFGSS- I took this link to a video record of the GLA meeting from there. Scroll to 3h 14m of that 3+ hour clip and you will see the walkout and hear the names of the members. I think they should be told what we think of them.