The aim of the Thames Tunnel project is to put in place a major new sewer to tackle the problem of overflows from the capital’s Victorian sewers into the River Thames. According to Thames Tunnel, 'The site would be used to connect the existing local CSO [Combined Sewer Overflow], known as the Deptford Storm Relief CSO, to the main tunnel via a long connection tunnel, known as the Greenwich connection tunnel' (full details of Thames Tunnel plans here).
If the proposed works go ahead the land will be a construction site for at least three and a half years, and afterwards there will permanently be sewer vents and a work “kiosk” for Thames Water on site.
Don't Dump on Deptford's Heart say: 'This public green in Deptford’s town centre lies between Deptford Church Street, Coffey Street and Crossfield Street. It is one of the few leafy open spaces in Deptford’s urban environment. A lot of money and time is being spent on making the centre of town a better place to live and work but undertaking construction works by building a shaft 45 meters deep and 17 meters in diameter to the sewers on our park and leaving us with sewer vents and a Thames Water work “kiosk” would only detract from these improvements'.
As a project, the Thames Tunnel sounds like A Very Good Thing and clearly the construction sites have to go somewhere. But Bill Ellson makes some interesting points at Deptford Misc about 'Environmental Justice', the argument that polluting industries tend to get disproportionately located in poorer areas: 'Here in Deptford the previously preferred bore site near Borthwick Wharf, where spoil could have left by river, has been replaced by a site in Deptford Church Street, where spoil will leave by road. According to Londonist a bore site at Barn Elms, Barnes has been replaced as the preferred option by a site at Carnwath Road, Wandsworth. The picture is not entirely clear, but it is hard not to suspect that what has actually happened is that sites near middle class riverside developments have been replaced by sites in poorer areas'.
I had similar thoughts over the summer when I walked over Bridge House Meadows in New Cross (once the site of the New Cross Stadium). This green space has been turned into a massive spoil heap for the London Overground extension between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction (pictured below). Again a socially useful engineering project, but you can't really imagine something like this being dumped in somewhere like Dulwich Park or Clapham Common without a massive row.
A campaign to prevent King's Stairs Gardens in Rotherhithe being used as construction site seems to have been successful for now, though it remains a reserve site.
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