The campaign by Tower Hamlets Labour Party to alienate every voter in the borough continues apace with the Liveable Streets fiasco setting the pace. Who needs an effective political opposition when your own people shoot themselves in the foot every day?
There is so much going on we can hardly keep track, but here is what we know. Or at least what we remember we know.
- NIMBYs to defund the London Cycling Campaign
- Singing in the Brick Lane rain
- Skew Bridge open again
- Bethnal Green road closures
- Wapping Bus Gate report
We also have a special free bonus feature for you, ‘Taking British politics by storm’. Or not.
NIMBYs to defund the London Cycling Campaign?
The London Cycling Campaign have dubbed all those who have the temerity to oppose their goals as ‘NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) residents’ as you can see on its Fighting Fund for Cycling page.
“Several landmark schemes that LCC fought for – including Tavistock Place, CS11 and Mini Hollands – are under threat. The opposition is coming from taxi drivers, anti-cycling councils, and groups of organised and well-resourced NIMBY residents.”
Wapping Wall based London Cycling Campaign (LCC) seems to have forgotten that it is ‘NIMBY residents’ who fund them every time a local council donates some cash to the LCC or hires the LCC for consultancy services.
More than one ‘NIMBY resident’ has suggested that it might be an nice idea to petition the council to stop all funding and consultancy fees to LCC. If one borough did this it would teach LCC some basic manners, if every borough in London did so it might start treating everyone with respect, not just those on two wheels.
(If you do organise a petition to defund the LCC please let us know!)
Singing in the Brick Lane rain
Latest crazy idea is to turn Brick Lane into a urban idyll to rival the Champs-Élysées of Paris by blocking it off so that everyone can site outside and enjoy their lattes in the sunshine.
Only problem being that the weather has changed and it is now pouring down.
Transport for London’s Streetspace London claims that local businesses asked for the pedestrianisation of Brick Lane but would not disclose which businesses.
We asked the Wapping Mole’s most valuable Brick Lane intelligence asset what had happened?
Many Brick Lane restaurant businesses were up for the plan as they believed pedestrianising the Lane would attract footfall to their restaurants providing al-fresco seating areas. Other concerns were raised around deliveries and servicing vehicles. Obviously at the time of these sessions Covid-19 was unheard of.
I understand however that the majority residents had opposing views due mainly to concerns with gridlock traffic in surrounding streets causing havoc for them getting in/out with their cars or cabs.
At my shop, we heard nothing more except a dropped-through-letterbox leaflet advising closures will commence today. No emails or personally addressed letters.
Now I can observe all traffic into Brick Lane from Whitechapel Road diverting into Chicksand Street, then onto Greatorex Street and Hanbury Street and Vallance Road. So the pollution levels in these surrounding streets have now risen astronomically, contrary to the Biggs Labour council’s ‘liveable streets’ PR bullshit. Vallance Road and Commercial Street are gridlocked as no through access to Brick Lane. It’s an absolute nightmare.
Skew Bridge open once again
It seems Skew Bridge in Bow has now reopened. Numerous Labour councillors are baffled as to why when they pose with their boxes of chalk in other roads they get squished.
It is too early to say if the property values of certain Labour councillors has gone up or down because of Skew Bridge being open again, we will keep you updated.
Bethnal Green road closures
A letter from Liveable Streets is doing the rounds telling residents that there will be road closures on Clarkson Street, Middleton Street, Punderson’s Gardens and Clare Street. Work is due to start on 2nd September for six weeks. Or longer if Labour councillors decided to play hopscotch with their kids before the work is completed.
Wapping Bus Gate
Many E1W residents like to think that the Wapping Bus Gate was the trailblazer for Liveable Streets. Mayor Biggs has proudly announced that the bus gate has reduced traffic by a third.
Odd that he makes no mention of the amount of cash it has raked in, after all that is it’s real purpose.
As ever Mayor Biggs is all ears to the needs of residents as he boasts that “As promised, we have listened carefully to the suggestions of residents. One issue that has come up is the need for exemptions for blue badge holders and I’m pleased to announce that we will soon be introducing new measures to allow access through the gateway for Wapping residents with disabilities.”
Idiot. How about you listen to blue badge holders BEFORE you install a bus gate next time?
A report on the Wapping Bus Gate is available here.
Taking British politics by storm
For those Wapping residents who wonder what the hell bus gate fanboy Cllr. Abdal ‘How many votes are there in it for me?’ Ullah does with his days (‘cos it sure ain’t constituency work) we can reveal that he plays at being a meejah personality on YouTube.
His latest scoop is to interview Apsana Begum MP. By some miracle of fawning sycophancy Cllr. Ullah manages to generate 50 minutes of utter drivel without asking Apsana Begum a single question about the progress of the investigation into her social housing situation.
Odd that, innit? And after all that campaigning he did for her during the election.
We should warn you that you will need a large bucket to puke into if you watch this interview with ‘young, inspirational figure who has taken British politics by storm’.
See what we mean? You were warned.
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Siri, define “wrong side of history”
On the Wapping Bus Gate Mayor Biggs statement that finally TH will do something about granting exceptions for residents with disabilities including blue badge holders is welcome . But as usual with Mayor Biggs and TH it shows a total lack of urgency and thus consideration for residents with disabilities. I wrote to Biggs, TH and the Liveable Streets team repeatedly about the issue specifically requesting exemptions for Blue badge holders my first emailed letter being 24 Sept 2019 (so near enough a year ago).
It took 2 months (and 3 chasers) for TH to finally reply (Nov 21st 2019) to say they were looking at the issue and said the camera could not recognise the blue badge.
I wrote back and said the solution is for TH to write to the Blue badge holders (they have the details) and invite them to register one vehicle (reg number) as exempt (the camera reads the Reg #). I believe this is the solution they are now looking at.
So it has taken a year to basically agree the issue needs to be addressed and as yet still no actual solution.
This hardly illustrates Biggs or TH recognising the needs of local residents with mobility restrictions, despite the statements on the original Liveable Streets PR campaign.
And yet TH and Biggs wonder why there is local opposition.
Thanks for all your work on this Chris, I hope other residents appreciate it. If you had not persisted with this for a year I have no doubt this issue would have been ignored by LBTH until such time as there were any votes in it. And then residents would get a series of false promises. As you say, Tower Hamlets Labour seem baffled by the opposition to their schemes. This is the same across the borough.