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Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Daily Mirror
'Hated' £2.2bn tunnel in the UK to temporarily close just months after opening
The controversial Silvertown Tunnel, which cost around £2.2bn, has temporarily closed due to maintenance and snagging works - just two months after its grand opening Drivers have been warned after a mega £2.2 billion tunnel, that promised to slash congestion and delays, has temporarily closed. Despite opening just two months ago, the hated Silvertown Tunnel has closed for 17 nights for general maintenance and snagging works. During the southbound-only closures - buses will be diverted via the Blackwall Tunnel. When both directions are closed, buses will operate a split-service that terminates at Canning Town and North Greenwich. "TfL will look to ensure bus services can continue to run where possible and has been communicating with drivers about the closures and weekly customer emails," a spokesperson said. Drivers will be advised through email communications to use alternative routes like the London Underground or route 108. The closures started on Friday, May 30 and will last until Sunday, June 22. Silvertown tunnel closures - the full list Friday, May 30: 22:00–06:00 (Southbound only) Saturday, May 31: 22:00–06:00 (Southbound only) Sunday, June 1: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Monday, June 2: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Tuesday, June 3: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Wednesday, June 4: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) Thursday, June 5: 22:00–05:00 (Northbound only) Friday, June 6: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Saturday, June 7: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Sunday, June 8: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) Friday, June 13: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Saturday, June 14: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Sunday, June 15: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) Wednesday, June 18: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Friday, June 20: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Saturday, June 21: 22:00–06:00 (Both bores closed) Sunday, June 22: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) The 1.4km tunnel - which opened on April 7, 2025, links Silvertown to the Greenwich Peninsula in east London and aims to reduce traffic in the area by making peak-time journeys faster and more reliable. After its grand opening, the average trip across the river was slashed by up to 20 minutes. Funded with a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) against future earnings for £2.2 billion, the tunnel was met with unwavering criticism ever since its planning approval back in 2018. While TfL argued the nearby Blackwall Tunnel was 'never designed' for the levels of traffic now whizzing through the Big Smoke - residents slammed the decision to allow Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) to use the new tunnel - meaning they no longer have to travel over the Dartford Crossing. Campaigners have slammed this rule, arguing they'll be subject to gas-guzzling vehicles travelling past their 'schools and kids', worsening the area's air quality. TfL has clapped back, saying it has been monitoring air quality for the past five years across five boroughs and will continue to monitor them for at least three years after the tunnel is opened. "This is to make sure the tunnel user charge levels are working and the project meets its objectives," TFL said. Silvertown Tunnel has resulted in more public transport offerings, with 21 zero-emission buses an hour travelling in each direction between 7am and 7pm Monday-Friday. However, the project was slammed again after it was revealed how almost £2 million was being spent on a three-year 'bike bus' contract that will allow cyclists to travel through the tunnel. The revelation came after TfL prohibited cycling in the tunnel for 'safety reasons' - meaning those on their bike will have to hop off and take a shuttle to cross the tunnel. find out if you're eligible for a discount here.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MP takes health centre fight to Westminster
Dudley MP Sonia Kumar has taken the fight for answers on the future of a Sedgley health centre to Parliament. Ms Kumar presented a petition containing over 1,600 names to the House of Commons, telling MPs the number of signatures shows the strength of feeling among people in Dudley. Campaigners are calling on Dudley Council to finalise a deal to keep services at the Ladies Walk Health Centre and library by renewing a lease on the property, which is set to expire in March 2026. Ms Kumar told MPs: 'This facility is a vital community hub and a treasured lifeline for local people accessing essential care. 'The petitioners request that the House of Commons urge the government to communicate urgently with the owners of the Ladies Walk centre property, Dudley Council and the NHS to secure the centre and stop its closure.' Campaigners fear, if the lease is not renewed, services will be relocated. They are calling for the council to either renew the lease or buy the centre under a compulsory purchase order. Dudley council's leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, says the situation has moved on substantially and negotiations are underway. Clr Harley said: 'We are all around the table and things seem to be moving at pace. Talks are ongoing, and I am confident we will come to an agreement at some point and things will stay as they are. 'We need to let the people who know what they are doing negotiate a good deal.' The centre was opened 25 years ago, it was constructed from 72 steel-framed modules which were craned into position. The centre was the first Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project to be constructed off-site. Under a PFI deal the private sector pays to construct public buildings and the public sector pays to use the building over a long-term contract. A public meeting to discuss progress on the Ladies Walk centre will take place at the Parish Church of All Saints, Vicar Street, Sedgley, on May 21, starting at 6.30pm. Anyone wishing to attend the meeting must pre-book at
The National
13-05-2025
- Health
- The National
Founding principles of NHS betrayed by both Labour and SNP
It was fun to be back in the industrial Lanarkshire heartland where I cut my political teeth 40 years ago. It seems like only yesterday I was jousting with the local Labour MP, George (now Lord) Robertson, in the town hall at Young Socialist meetings. On the doorsteps, then as now, the state of our National Health Service was never far from people's minds. It's not surprising, since the British Medical Association believes the health service is currently facing 'the most severe crisis in its history'. If so, it's a crisis precipitated by widespread privatisation, chronic underfunding and NHS leaders who do not support its founding principles. Wishaw General and Hairmyres are the NHS Lanarkshire hospitals covering the Hamilton area. Both buildings are owned by commercial companies under the now-notorious Private Finance Initiative. READ MORE: Quality and quantity of GP appointments have both declined Their budgets, like six other PFIs in Scotland, have been drained by this arrangement because of the profit-taking inherent to its DNA the profit-taking in the DNA of such arrangements. The controversial model is neither popular nor efficient. History will record for ever more that Labour used these schemes to build six Scottish hospitals and the SNP two more. Bluntly speaking, this means both parties betrayed the promises they made to protect the NHS's founding principle, established in 1948: that our health services would be free at point of need, publicly owned and run, and guarantee equity of access. Two reports published last week highlighted the extent of that much-restricted access. First, Audit Scotland reported that one-fifth of all calls to the NHS 24 service last year were abandoned – in other words, 60,000 people gave up waiting for an answer in their doubtless exasperated quest for help. Adding to that appalling statistic, BMA Scotland calculated that we are now 1800 GPs short in the ambition to return to even pre-Covid levels of primary care provision. Reinforcing patient dissatisfaction even more, Professor Allyson Pollock, of Newcastle University, sent me her study of elective surgery performance from 1997-2021, which concludes that private medicine is not augmenting the NHS, as successive governments insisted it would. It is in fact replacing it when it comes to hip and knee surgery, to the detriment of long-suffering patients who can't afford the exorbitant private hospital charges. Meanwhile, a University of York study on productivity in the NHS revealed that the organisation is now performing 11% below pre-pandemic levels because of the triple whammy of privatisation, chronic underinvestment and staff shortages. The promise First Minister John Swinney made last week of 100,000 extra GP appointments next year will therefore underwhelm most people experiencing the crisis our NHS is now facing. The intense frustration patients across Scotland feel at 8am daily attempting to access the medical care from GP surgeries to which they are entitled will be little diminished by such paltry promises. The provision of social care in Scotland is another demonstrable disgrace. During the pandemic, then-first minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that the situation was completely unacceptable and repeatedly promised us 'a national care service on a par with the NHS'. Little did we know she intended to diminish the care provided by both! Today's NHS is unquestionably performing poorer than it was prior to the SNP's first Holyrood victory in 2007. That is something Nationalists must honestly face up to across Scotland. Meanwhile, back in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, people awaiting the vote on June 5 recognise that Reform UK have the wind in their sails after the English local election results. I fear we could see a sizeable increase in support for them because of the failures of the parties of the 'extreme centre' who have angered people with their insipid managerialism in office. READ MORE: Andrew Bowie panned over 'contempt for scientific evidence' with climate comments While I detect no great admiration for the SNP, Geoff Aberdein, the seasoned political strategist and former adviser to Alex Salmond, asked on his podcast recently: 'Where else in the western world is a party in government for almost two decades, and facing a by-election, the favourites to win?' He has a point. But it says more perhaps about the calibre of the opposition than anything else. Labour are under more pressure than the SNP to win this contest, yet they are haemorrhaging support under the dull leadership of Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar. As we have seen this week, Labour fully intend to embrace the reactionary politics of Reform UK on issues such as immigration, the economy and climate change. Instead of offering even a mild left-of-centre alternative, they seem to believe Scotland needs more privatisation, inequality and division. The middle-aged woman I met in Union Street, Larkhall last Saturday weighed up the Scottish Socialist Party's case presented to her, and perhaps summed up the mood in the constituency when she said: 'Right enough. It's time someone else had the chance to show what they can do.'
The Herald Scotland
11-05-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Fearless consultant physician and scourge of PFI dies
Died: April 18, 2025 Matthew Dunnigan, who has died aged 93, was a consultant physician at Stobhill Hospital for 27 years who distinguished himself, both in his studies on delivery of health care, and in the clinical arena. When health leaders in Glasgow were planning a reduction in acute bed numbers in the 1990s, Dr Dunnigan forensically analysed the planning models and showed the health board's plans would not cope with an increasingly frail and elderly population. Sadly, his detailed analysis was repeatedly ignored with the resultant consequences we are all living with today. The late 1990s was a period of major hospital closures and the building of new hospitals under the exorbitant Private Finance Initiative (PFI) throughout the UK. All of these schemes entailed selling off NHS land and hospitals with major reductions in beds. Dr Dunnigan extended his forensic analysis of bed planning to Lothian Health Board's plans for the New Edinburgh Royal and many of the new PFI hospital plans in England. He exposed the flawed assumptions regarding bed provisions and in every case the evidence was ignored by the policy makers. His analysis, unlike those of the NHS bed planners, has stood the test of time – the UK now has the lowest hospital bed numbers of all the countries in Europe. Dr Dunnigan's academic curiosity was also in evidence in the clinical arena where he also distinguished himself. Arguably the most meritorious was his work with severely physically and mentally disabled patients in the long-since-closed Lennox Castle Hospital in the 1980s. Read more Dr Dunnigan's attention was drawn to this by observing dehydration in patients being admitted to Stobhill Hospital from Lennox Castle. He suspected that these patients were not being fed adequately. He therefore looked at the intake of the inpatients at that institution and demonstrated severe caloric and nutritional deficiencies, especially in those who were unable to feed themselves. Correction of this led to the patients gaining weight and being more settled and easier to look after. His findings were eventually accepted by the health board who agreed to provide more staff and better nutrition for the patients. Dr Dunnigan was also involved in a study looking at the high incidence of rickets in the recently arrived Asian children to Glasgow in the 1960s. In their homeland, the sun provided all the Vitamin D they required but this was not the case in Glasgow's tenement blocks. Having identified the problem, Dr Dunnigan arranged to have Vitamin D inserted into the flour used to make chapattis, and the rickets all but disappeared. He continued to conduct studies and write about Vitamin D deficiency in South Asians for two decades. Dr Dunnigan contributed in a number of other clinical areas including unexplained fluid retention in women and Dunnigan's Syndrome which described a rare type of genetic lipid disorder. Matthew Dunnigan was born in 1931 to what he described as poor but honest parents in a steel house in Clydebank. Matthew continued: 'my parents were both keen on self-improvement, evening classes and 'getting on'.' His mother taught primary classes of 50-60 children as a 19-year-old until marriage prevented her from continuing. His father, who left school at 15, was self-educated and became a cost accountant. As a young child Matthew suffered from scarlet fever, which then was a life-threatening illness. This necessitated several months in hospital without any contact with his family. Perversely, this experience was to be repeated in the last years of his life through Covid. The family moved to Troon during the Second World War and Dr Dunnigan attended Marr College where he was Dux. He entered Glasgow University to study medicine, graduating in 1955. After completing his national service, he chose endocrinology as his specialty. He also completed an MD (with honours) under the guidance of the renowned cardiologist Dr JH Wright. He was appointed consultant physician at Stobhill Hospital in 1969 and following his retiral in 1996 continued as a senior research fellow at Glasgow University. His strengths included being a gifted orator, having a wonderful way with words and the ability to back up his arguments with thoroughly analysed data. He was always an inquisitive physician which was to the considerable benefit of his patients. Within all of these activities, his family were front and centre in his life. He cared lovingly for his wife Anna of 57 years in her final illness. He is survived by his son Matthew and daughter Sarah, both of whom are distinguished academics in Edinburgh. FRANK DUNN and ALLYSON POLLOCK
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
When Silvertown opens, Blackwall tolls start too
In under a month, tolls will be introduced for drivers at the new Silvertown Tunnel and the existing Blackwall Tunnel in east London. For car drivers it will cost £8 a day in peak. These are huge changes to London's transport network and awareness seems to be low. The new highly controversial Silvertown Tunnel opens on 7 April. Critics have dubbed the crossing a huge polluting white elephant that will do nothing to cut congestion and pollution with little or no business case. Supporters say it will reduce congestion on the old, existing Blackwall Tunnel and improve resilience on the crossing that closes 700 times a year. It will also provide more cross river bus routes as well as a bus that can carry bikes. Even now with just three weeks to its opening, it is the subject of much rancour and debate. The Silvertown Tunnel is 1.4km (just under one mile) long and stretches from Silvertown in Newham to the Greenwich Peninsula. It is within the Ulez zone. The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan reviewed the scheme when he came into office. Mr Khan gave the tunnel the go-ahead, funded with a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) against future earnings. The cost was £2.2bn. Transport for London (TfL) will pay back £100m a year through the toll revenue. Liam Davis organised a petition against the tolls which now has 47,500 signatures. He said: "There remains both a sense of outrage and an air of resignation that tolls will commence on both tunnels but most opposition political parties have not adequately voiced their constituents' anger and frustration, either in Parliament or London Assembly. "The 7th of April will be a watershed moment in many people's lives who have dedicated their working careers to roles, pupils or patients and colleagues they enjoy on the opposite side of the River Thames." TfL said the Silvertown Tunnel "will help manage air pollution and make journeys faster and more reliable, with journeys expected to be up to 20 minutes quicker at peak times". A TfL spokesperson added: "It will also support economic growth through reduced queuing on the roads around the river crossings, and allow TfL to increase the number of buses able to cross the river in this area from six to 21 buses an hour in each direction during the busiest times - all of which will be zero emission at the tailpipe and free for the first year." But this scheme has been dogged with controversy since the beginning with many local residents, schools and campaigners opposing it. TfL admits the construction of the Silvertown increases congestion and pollution but its solution is to introduce tolls to control the traffic. Dominic Leggett from Stop Silvertown Coalition said: "Londoners need to know that the infrastructure increases traffic and it increases pollution." He says the business case does not stack up. "What happens is the Silvertown Tunnel makes things worse and the Blackwall Tunnel toll makes things better - adding those things together you get a little reduction in congestion." He said they should have considered the environmental and economic impact of tolling Blackwall Tunnel compared to tolling Blackwall and building Silvertown Tunnel. "If they did that they'd see the outcomes are a lot worse by building the Silvertown Tunnel. "So effectively the Silvertown Tunnel is a huge polluting white elephant." The mayor has tried to lessen the impact of the tolls with concessions and discounts for low-income residents in some parts of London. There are also lower off-peak rates for those who register for the TfL Autopay app. Charges will apply from 06:00 - 22:00, seven days a week in both directions. There will be free bus journeys on three cross-river routes that serve Newham, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich (Route 108, 129 and SL4) - all of which will be zero-emission. They will be free for at least one year. But the number of buses using the tunnels per hour has been cut from 37 to 21. In addition, cross-river journeys on the DLR will also be refunded for at least one year. Cyclists can also use these DLR services during off-peak hours. There is also a bus every 12 minutes that cyclists will be able to put their bikes on. The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan told me recently: "We mustn't pretend that the situation in that part of London is acceptable. It isn't. "There is only one river crossing there - the Blackwall Tunnel made in the Victorian times that's built on a bend to stop horses bolting. "It closes on average 600 times a year. Every five-minute closure leads to a three-mile tailback. "That means the one bus that does cross the river is the most unreliable bus in London. It leads to not just congestion but pollution. "Our solution is a second tunnel, two lanes reserved for zero emission buses. "Or you can use the DLR for free for at least a year. If they have a bike they can jump on a bus. "We are going to monitor the air quality and congestion and my prediction is you'll see improvements and a better quality of life for people in south-east London." Indeed, the Silvertown Tunnel does have a bus lane but large HGVs will also be able to use it. At the moment big HGVs can't use the northbound Blackwall Tunnel due to height restrictions. Campaigners say it will just attract more HGVs to the area and around 20,000 extra vehicles a day will use the tunnel. Residents also say the Blackwall approach roads are already saturated so if there is an incident at Blackwall the tailbacks could quickly block the approach to the Silvertown Tunnel, negating any benefits. Local resident Patrick Ives said: "Congestion is a concern but we don't know how it will play out. "We have new distribution centres that are unlet at the moment. "They're going to require lorry access, the road infrastructure has not been improved." He added that as the tunnel will be free at night more lorries could use it, creating more overnight congestion on local streets. Karin Tearle from Stop the Silvertown Pollution and Traffic echoed this concern. She added: "What concerns me is if they don't have the modelling and the monitoring to look at the data what will happen if they reduce or remove the tolls? "I think this is public injustice and it's going to affect the health in Greenwich and Newham." David Rowe is from TfL and told BBC London that Silvertown was "absolutely value for money". "If you just look at the journey time savings, it's over £900m worth of savings. You add that reliability benefits you go up to £1.2bn. So there's huge benefits. "This is all about how do we create those opportunities in that part of London." He added that Silvertown would create more economic growth, something not possible solely with the Blackwall crossing as it closed regularly. Public transport will also improve as there will be more bus services, he said. According to legal advice obtained by campaigners, there is nothing to stop future mayors from changing the toll, reducing it or even getting rid of it altogether. It also doesn't seem to be clear what the various concessions will do to traffic levels. Dominic Leggett says removing the tolls would make everyone worse off. "There is huge political resistance to the toll on Blackwall which is the only thing that is protecting residents from all the pollution and congestion that Silvertown causes. "So it's quite likely that the next mayoral candidate will either reduce or remove the toll or just not increase it fast enough to deal with the increasing congestion and then everyone is worse off." A TfL spokesperson said: "TfL's extensive development work has shown the new crossing, user charge and cross-river bus network will help cut congestion, support sustainable growth of new homes and jobs, and deliver an overall improvement in air quality. "We are committed to delivering an overall improvement in air quality due to reduced traffic delays and congestion as a result of this scheme. "We began a comprehensive programme of Silvertown specific NO2 monitoring in 2020 to understand baseline conditions. This monitoring will continue for a minimum of three years post the tunnel opening." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnel tolls start in April 'It will make south-east London even more isolated' TfL: Silvertown tunnel charges
