ON Friday (19 September) Thurrock Council presented its evidence against another Thames crossing in the borough to the House of Commons’ Transport Select Committee’s inquiry into strategic river crossings.
The council has also asked to give verbal evidence to the committee when it meets later in the year and all three panellists at the public meeting on crossings in South Ockendon earlier this month asked that people write in support.
The evidence – including a letter from Council Leader Cllr John Kent – sums up Thurrock Council’s objections to the proposed Lower Thames Crossing and highlights a number of issues where it believes policies should be created to ensure they are not only addressed in Thurrock now, but also when any similar schemes are being considered elsewhere in the country.
Cllr Kent said: “At last week’s public meeting we said we’d be sending in this evidence and that we wanted to speak directly to the committee.”
And Thurrock MP, Jackie Doyle-Price, who was also at the public meeting, said: “I have been lobbying the Transport Committee to hold this inquiry as it is clear to me that there has been a failure on the part of successive Governments to properly plan and deliver strategic road infrastructure.
“Nowhere is this more true than on the issue of crossings across the Thames.”
Cllr Kent’s letter states: “It is imperative directly-affected local authorities are informed about and can agree all scoping and screening assessments, and that detailed modelling information must be made available as part of the consultation process.
“In addition, where there are neighbouring proposals – such as those from the TfL and DfT for crossing the Thames – they should all be considered together and at least the possible cumulative and joint effects taken into consideration.”
And he calls on government: “In the spirit of open government, full costings on all variants should be available to all, or at least to local authorities, especially as, in respect of the DfT study, there appear to be inconsistencies in the scoring of options. Some assumptions made in 2009 no longer appear be valid and if this work was to be reviewed now, Option D – which was dismissed in 2009 – could score higher than Option C which is still under consideration.”
The letter continues to say the council believes “independent reviews must be held of option study work; there is a need for timely reviews when the process takes several years, so Thurrock Council respectfully requests the committee recommends to the Secretary of State for Transport that Option D, or a variant of it, be reconsidered as a possible new Lower Thames Crossing”.
And it closes by asking that Thurrock Council is allowed to present oral evidence when the committee meets.
Ms Doyle-Price added: “I have submitted written evidence and I am pleased that Thurrock Council has done also.
“Thurrock has more experience of hosting significant road infrastructure, and being both blessed and blighted by it. Our experience will inform how we get this better in future. I look forward to making sure that our representations are properly scrutinised by the committee.”
