Residents ‘pawns’ in political stalemate
MAN AFFECTED BY HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE CLOSURE SPEAKS OUT
A BUSINESSMAN whose journey to work has been made 10 times longer by the closure of Hammersmith Bridge has said residents feel like “pawns” in a political game.
Father-of-one Toby GordonSmith is one of thousands of residents in the leafy Barnes peninsula who feel cut off from west and central London.
The 133-year-old cast iron bridge was closed fully in August, having been restricted to pedestrians and cyclists from April last year after microfractures were found in its pedestals.
Among the biggest losers are families who send their children to schools on the other side of the Thames, and have seen their school runs go from 15 minute walks to two-hour bus rides.
Equally frustrated is Mr GordonSmith, the CEO of a health-products business that employs four other people and has its office in Hammersmith.
The 46-year-old, who uses a wheelchair and can see the broken bridge from his riverside home, said: “The political stalemate has been used as a bargaining tool and we’re all pawns in this game. They are bargaining with our livelihoods.
“Hammersmith and Fulham [Council] owns the bridge, but they don’t care about it as much as people in this borough do.
“Now we’ve got the government saying the Labourrun council and mayor are not doing anything ‘so we will’.
“It’s so politically charged and it’s going to take months for them to decide anything.”
A task force of council leaders and civil servants was set up by the government in September to decide what should happen to the bridge.
Mr Gordon-Smith called the task force’s promise of having a ferry service ready by early next year “very vague”. “We’re taking bets on whether the ferries will come before the Covid vaccine,” he said.
“We hope that having a central body will cut through the nonsense, but there seems to be no urgency.”
Being disabled, due to injuries from a paragliding accident, he said Hammersmith was “one of the few transport hubs I could access”.
“It’s not by accident that I chose to live here. I can’t access the platform at Barnes Station [which has no wheelchair access].
“Hammersmith allowed me to get to Farringdon and Green Park
It’s so politically charged and it’s going to take months for them to decide anything. Toby Gordon-Smith
and Paddington Station.
“There’s only a handful of London Underground stations that are accessible.
“Our business requires one person to be in the office. We have one person based in Shepherd’s Bush, but what do we do if he’s ill or wants to go on holiday? It now takes over an hour and a half for me to get there.”
He accused London mayor Sadiq Khan, who chairs cashstrapped TfL, of doing “nothing to help”.
He continued: “The other concern I have around [Conservative mayoral candidate] Shaun Bailey is I think the Tories are trying to use this as part of their election campaigning.
“If we’re going to have no progress for six months [before the mayoral election in May] so that they can try to get him in as mayor, that’s pretty shameful. That might even backfire on him.”
Mr Bailey’s campaign team was approached for comment but they did not respond.
Mr Gordon Smith, who lives with his wife and young son, also called it “ridiculous” that bridges are managed by local councils.
“The fact that these bridges belong to councils… by definition these bridges are on councils’ borders, so it’s a ridiculous situation to be in,” he said. “It has to be part of London’s strategic road network.
“And the congestion that’s been caused by closing this bridge has been pretty extreme.”
He added: “Hopefully the task force will have the capacity for this but we’re not seeing much.”
The Department for Transport has yet to announce whether it will fund the restoration of Hammersmith Bridge, estimated to cost more than £140 million.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council leader Stephen Cowan, a member of the task force, has said one potentially cheaper option being discussed is building a brand new cycling and pedestrian bridge.
After last week’s task force meeting, on October 15, it was announced that a “more easilyconstructed temporary footbridge than has previously been proposed” is now being considered.
Mr Cowan also said: “As a group, we continue to work tirelessly to identify the issues, solutions and timelines for re-opening the bridge and will provide more information on these in due course.”