It’s 17 months since the Silvertown Tunnel was given planning approval by the secretary of state for transport. Since then, rather a lot has happened, but curiously, no digging has started – and the opening day for the tunnel slips further away.

Earlier this year, we decided to wind up our campaign. We began with a petition, launched on Christmas Eve 2012, then found ourselves conducting air quality testing all over south-east and east London. We held public meetings, talked to the media, we even talked to TfL. We encouraged people to make their voices heard in consultations, and we sat through six months of public hearings. The campaign was always about the consultation and planning process, and we had done all we could before the scheme was given permission. It was now for those involved in local politics to bring pressure on their mayor, Sadiq Khan, to change his mind.

Our remaining funds were split between two organisations: Network for Clean Air, which helped us with our early air pollution studies; and the Ella Roberta Family Foundation, which raises awareness of the dangers of air pollution and childhood asthma.

Our campaign was based around pollution and congestion. The climate emergency has now come to the fore as a reason to cancel the scheme in a way that it never did in the 2016/17 hearings. A new cross-party campaign, the Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition, has been formed to focus on this. They have no connection with us – they are a completely different group of people. We wish them all the very best, and you can find them on Twitter at @SilvertownTn. (If anyone says they’ve met us, or done something with us, that’s who they mean.)

We’re keeping this website and our Twitter account alive as an archive of what we’ve done, including the air quality testing and our submission to the public hearings into the scheme.

We were helped in our campaign by scores of fantastic people, on both sides of the Thames, and of all political persuasions and none. We’re hugely grateful to each and every one of them, and we wish the new campaigners well as we watch to see whether this dangerous, poorly thought-through scheme really does go ahead.

Thank you for your support.

Traffic heading away from the Blackwall Tunnel regularly clogs up east and south-east London’s roads

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has today approved London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans to build the Silvertown Tunnel, a new road under the Thames from the Royal Docks to the Greenwich Peninsula.

The No to Silvertown Tunnel campaign has been challenging these plans for nearly five years, conducting air quality tests, holding public meetings and lobbying local politicians. We’re grateful to everybody who has helped our cause over the years.

No to Silvertown Tunnel chair Anne Robbins said:

“We’re disappointed, but we are proud to have spoken up for communities on both sides of the Thames who objected to having more traffic imposed on them.

“We still believe that this will ultimately make the congestion problem worse, by adding to traffic jams elsewhere. The environmental mitigation suggested – such as running a cycle bus through the tunnel – is a hollow joke, while tolls will just punish those who need to use the tunnel.

“This sends a terrible message to the wider world: that London is closed to new thinking on how to deal with congestion. Sadiq Khan needs to think long and hard if he wants to be the mayor that condemns thousands of people to more congestion and pollution by going ahead with this tunnel.

“We’d like to thank all those who have supported our campaign for all their help and assistance. Whatever we do next, we have been inspired by those elsewhere who have been campaigning against road building and for better air quality.”

A decision about the future of the campaign will be announced in due course.

Full details of today’s decision can be found on the Planning Inspectorate website: infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/london/silvertown-tunnel/

Pollution over the A102 on Thursday 2 November. This would be a key route to the Silvertown Tunnel

The decision on whether the Silvertown Tunnel will be built has been delayed again – this time until May 2018 – to allow issues surrounding air quality to be considered further.

We think this gives London mayor Sadiq Khan and his deputy mayor for transport, Val Shawcross, the ideal chance to show leadership and cancel a scheme which threatens to increase pollution and congestion across large areas of south-east and east London.

After six months of planning hearings, the Secretary of State for Transport was due to have made a decision by October on whether the tunnel, which would run from the Royal Docks to the Greenwich Peninsula, should be built.

But last month Transport Minister Paul Maynard delayed a decision until 10 November. Now he’s put it off even longer, setting a new deadline of 10 May 2018.

No to Silvertown Tunnel – a group of residents on both sides of the Thames – has been fighting this scheme since it first emerged under Boris Johnson’s mayoralty, and has gained cross-party support for its campaign. Three affected boroughs – Hackney, Lewisham and Southwark – opposed the tunnel at planning hearings.

When we started our campaign, concerns about the tunnel and air pollution were ignored by many London politicians. We see the lengthy delay to the planning process as, in part, a vindication of the time and energy we and our valued supporters have put into the campaign.

But this delay must now be used to finally kill off this tunnel, and to consider new ways of cutting congestion and improving links across the River Thames.

No to Silvertown Tunnel chair Anne Robbins says:

“We’ve offered to talk to Sadiq Khan and Val Shawcross about our concerns but have never even been sent a response. They need to stop running away from this issue and must now face up to their responsibilities.

“Sadiq Khan is serious about tackling air pollution, but he needs to show leadership and scrap this toxic tunnel.”

• See also reaction from Campaign for Better Transport and Friends of the Earth.

A decision on whether the Silvertown Tunnel will be built has been delayed until November to allow for further consideration of air quality issues.

Today is six months since the end of the public examination into the scheme. An announcement had been due to be made this morning.

But Transport Minister Paul Maynard has released a written statement to the House of Commons extending the deadline until 10 November.

During the summer, the Department for Transport asked those involved in the public examination for their views on how the Silvertown Tunnel fits in with the government’s new plan to deal with air pollution. The extension of the deadline is to allow more time for those responses to be considered.

We at No to Silvertown Tunnel have always maintained that the Silvertown Tunnel is likely to increase congestion, and so will also increase pollution. We hope the final decision will recognise what we have believed all along – that the Silvertown Tunnel represents a reckless gamble with the health and wellbeing of thousands of Londoners, and should be abandoned.

Thank you for your support so far. See you back here next month…

We’re coming to the end of Transport for London’s application to build the Silvertown Tunnel.

The public examination into the scheme – effectively a fast-tracked planning inquiry – closed on 11 April. The inspectors have three months to give their recommendations to the Secretary of State for Transport, then we should get a final decision by early autumn.

We’ve had volunteers present at most of the hearings since the process began back in October. The examination – which has been very thorough – has uncovered flaws and contradictions in TfL’s case for building the tunnel and charging for both it and the Blackwall Tunnel.

The process is, in part, meant to resolve problems with the scheme and encourage parties to find common ground.

But the boroughs – even those that support the tunnel – are still unhappy with TfL’s traffic modelling, upon which its predictions of congestion and pollution depend. TfL has also been making some late changes to the scheme, which raise new questions about the validity of its modelling.

While we wait for the final decision, we’d like to thank all those who wrote to the Planning Inspectorate to offer their reasons why the Silvertown Tunnel should be rejected.

You can see all the papers and submissions on the Planning Inspectorate website.

Terry Grant air quality studies

Four local groups – based in and around Beckenham, Blackheath, Brockley and Eltham – carried out air quality studies a few weeks ago thanks to money donated at the funeral of one of our volunteers.

Terry Grant, who died last July, helped us with our original air quality studies in 2013 and 2014.

We wanted to honour his memory, so funded some groups that hadn’t done air quality studies before so they could measure the pollution in their own areas.

The groups carried out their studies in March, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results. Thanks to Andrew Wood at Network for Clean Air for helping us and the groups with these studies.

What happens next? Come to our annual general meeting

We’d like to invite you to No to Silvertown Tunnel‘s annual general meeting. It’ll be at Mycenae House, Blackheath, on Tuesday 16 May at 8pm.

With the end of the planning process near, we’ll need to make some decisions about the future of the campaign. Here’s the agenda for the meeting.

Mycenae House is 10 minutes’ walk from Westcombe Park station (trains from Cannon Street, Greenwich and Woolwich Arsenal) and close to bus routes 53, 54, 108, 202, 380, 386 and 422.

There’s a licensed bar, which will also be open after the meeting.

So please come along – it’ll be great to see you. As always, if you have any questions, please drop us a line on info@silvertowntunnel.co.uk.

Left: No to Silvertown Tunnel volunteer Ian Blore outside Meridian Primary School in Greenwich. Right: Our committee members Chris Taylor and Jill Austen in Peartree Way, also in Greenwich.

Update – 12 January 2017: Applications for this scheme have now closed.

Have you ever wondered just how pollution affects your neighbourhood? We’re offering local communities the funding to carry out their own air pollution tests in the New Year.

Since 2013, the No to Silvertown Tunnel campaign has carried out three different air pollution studies in south-east and east London. The studies are simple – you tie tubes to lamp posts, leave them there for four weeks, then you take them down and send them to a laboratory, which analyses the results and sends them back to you.

– 2013 study: east Greenwich, Blackheath, Charlton and around the A102 and A2
– 2014 study: across Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs, plus parts of Bexley, Newham and Southwark (with help from Don’t Dump on Deptford’s Heart)
– 2015 study: around Canning Town, Poplar and Silvertown

We used these studies to highlight the state of the air on roads affected by Blackwall Tunnel traffic, and to point out the threat the Silvertown Tunnel poses to these areas.

The studies were really valuable to us. In fact, they’re even highlighted in Transport for London’s own air quality reports into the tunnel scheme. Our work has also kick-started other pollution study projects in east Greenwich, Charlton and Slade Green.

Now we’d like to see more groups carry them out in different areas – so we’re offering funding for two community groups to work with our friends at Network for Clean Air to carry out their own studies in the New Year.

The money comes from donations given at the funeral of Terry Grant, who helped us with our studies in 2013 and 2014. Terry was a big supporter of our campaign, and we’re very grateful to his family for offering us the money to help us do this.

We’d like to measure our own air pollution – what do we need to do?

We’re keen to hear from people in south-east or east London who want to carry out their own studies.

You don’t have to be a formal residents’ group. You could be a group of neighbours concerned about the air in your street, or parents worried about what your children are breathing. It could also be for a school project, or for just one or two streets. (We were inspired to carry out our studies by the Putney Society‘s work on Putney High Street, which has now forced City Hall into declaring it a “green bus zone”).

But you and your group do need to be able to give up a few hours to put the tubes up, and a few more to take them down four weeks later. You can then use the results to get press attention and lobby politicians for action.

Interested? Please e-mail us – info@silvertowntunnel.co.uk – before Wednesday 11 January.

To be considered, please let us know…

• the specific area you are thinking of covering,
• why you want to do it (it doesn’t have to be Silvertown Tunnel-related),
• how many tubes you think you’ll need (we reckon between six and 16, but this will depend on how large or small an area you’re thinking of covering),
• what you’d like to do with the results,
• how many people you’d be working with.

We’re also very keen to hear from groups who haven’t done this before, and in areas that haven’t been studied before.

We’ll be bearing these criteria in mind when we work out which projects to fund. This is aimed at groups of people who want to study pollution in a particular area – we’re not offering funding for single tubes outside people’s homes, and we aren’t interested in applications from individuals who aren’t working with other people.

If we choose you, we’ll put you in touch with Network For Clean Air, who will obtain the tubes and help you get started.

So, please have a chat with friends or neighbours, and drop us a line.

Wednesday afternoon smog over the A102 heading away from the Blackwall Tunnel

Khan backed the Silvertown Tunnel after becoming mayor, but the final decision isn’t down to him. We’re now in a six-month process of public hearings overseen by the Planning Inspectorate.

A three-strong panel is sifting through the arguments, and they will make a recommendation on whether or not to back the tunnel in April 2017. It then goes to the Secretary of State for Transport for a final decision.

As part of this, we’ve submitted a 9,000-word written representation, drawing on views from residents and transport experts as well as our take on what’s in TfL’s application. You can read our written representation on the Planning Inspectorate’s website – along with everyone else’s.

We attended the first hearings, which were held at ExCel in October.

Who’s saying what?

What struck us as interesting is that the major landowners on the Greenwich Peninsula – Knight Dragon and the firms behind the O2 – are currently objecting to the scheme because of the way it will be constructed.

It seems to us that the reliability of TfL’s traffic modelling will be the key to whether this gets approved or not – since everything else follows from that.

Yet we’re seeing demands from Newham Council and others to give residents discounts on using the tunnel, along with heavy hints from Sadiq Khan that this could be on the cards – even though this would throw TfL’s predictions for traffic levels in disarray.

The next set of hearings will be at the Crystal, also in the Royal Docks, next week. They’ll be dealing with traffic modelling and compulsory purchases of land. We’ll be at the hearing on traffic modelling on 7 December. There’ll be further hearings in January, at a location to be decided.

If you’ve any questions about the planning process, give the Planning Inspectorate’s project team a call on 0303 444 5000 or visit its website.

What else is happening?

If you have a moment spare, there are some more things you can do…

• Ever wanted to carry out an air pollution study in your neighbourhood? We’ll shortly be announcing a scheme to help communities carry out the kinds of studies we’ve done in the past. If you’d like to team up with neighbours to do one yourself, have a think about it – we’ll announce more details soon.
• The Mayor is still consulting on his plans to tackle air pollution in London. We believe the Silvertown Tunnel will undermine these proposals, and that the Ultra Low Emissions Zone should cover all of Greater London, not just the area within the North and South Circular. Tell him what you think (you can mention the tunnel at question 14): https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/environment/air-quality-consultation-phase-2/
• Live north of the proposed tunnel? There are plans to include new pedestrian crossings on the A12 at Bromley-by-Bow. Find out more, and how to respond, from Diamond Geezer: http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/bromley-by-bow-south-masterplan.html
• Live south of the proposed tunnel? TfL and Greenwich Council are planning to rip out the bus lane through Greenwich Millennium Village. Take part in the consultation: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/west-parkside/

Finally, we’re having some Christmas drinks on Sunday 18 December at the Woolwich Equitable pub, General Gordon Place SE18 5AB – opposite Woolwich Arsenal National Rail/DLR station. We’d love to see as many people as possible – we’ll be there from 7.30pm.

A new tunnel feeding into this A102 southbound queue can only make congestion and pollution worse.

Sadiq Khan’s backing for the Silvertown Tunnel is a betrayal of those who voted for him believing he would clean up London’s air, campaigners said today.

The London mayor has announced he will support the £1bn project to create a new road tunnel between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Dock, after distancing himself from the scheme while running for election.

The tunnel proposals are currently at the planning stage, with the first stage of the inquiry due to begin next week.

Opponents of the tunnel include Lewisham and Hackney councils, while two of the Greenwich Peninsula’s biggest landowners – Knight Dragon and O2 operators AEG – have submitted detailed objections to the planning inquiry.

“For Sadiq Khan to call this a ‘greener Silvertown Tunnel’ hides the fact that Greenwich and the Royal Docks would be a dumping ground for the south of England’s congestion and pollution,” No to Silvertown Tunnel chair Anne Robbins says.

“He talks a good game when it comes to pollution and congestion in central London, but communities in east and south east London clearly don’t seem to matter as much. They will be living with even worse traffic and poorer air.”

“Khan promised a full review of the tunnel, but has made no attempt to reach out to those who’ll have to live with the consequences if his scheme is given the go-ahead.”

While the new tunnel is aimed at solving the problem of northbound queues at the Blackwall Tunnel, it is likely to exacerbate traffic congestion elsewhere on the network, such as heading southbound through Sun-in-the-Sands on the A2 and, north of the river, along the Lower Lea Crossing and Aspen Way.

It will also enable the biggest HGVs to cross the Thames at this point, bringing more of these dangerous and polluting vehicles into east London.

Khan’s main idea to “green” the tunnel is a “cycle bus” scheme to enable cyclists to cross the Thames at this point – similar to a scheme that’s been operating at the Dartford crossing since the 1960s.

People affected by the scheme will have the chance to put their views to planning inspectors at special “open floor hearings” due to take place at the ExCeL centre in the Royal Docks on Thursday 13 October, at 10am and 7pm.

The Silvertown Tunnel will do nothing to stop queues like this, heading south to the Blackwall Tunnel at Bromley-by-Bow

Your voice can help stop the Silvertown Tunnel – and you’ve got until the end of August to sign up as an objector to the scheme.

Despite growing objections to the tunnel – from residents, politicians and campaign groups – London mayor Sadiq Khan has allowed the proposal to stay in the planning process.

If we’re to stop this expensive waste of time, all of us who want to see the tunnel stopped need to take part in this process. So please take a few minutes to register as an objector to the tunnel before 31 August.

This planning process is being watched closely at City Hall. The more objections received, the more chance we have of getting this thing scrapped.

What’s going on?

The tunnel’s been designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. So the decision’s not being taken by local councils, it’s in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate. It’ll appoint an “examining authority” (which we expect to be a panel of three or more people) to study responses and decide on the arguments surrounding the proposal. You’ll find all the relevant documents here.

To take part in this, you need to register as an interested party, and then make a relevant representation – something short that sums up your opposition to the tunnel. Later, you’ll be asked to submit something more detailed.

Ready to begin? Here’s the form you need to fill in.

What should I write?

Quite simply, you should outline why you think the tunnel is a bad idea. Please don’t make sweeping statements about national or London/local policies – the panel won’t be interested.

Keep it short and to the point, on why you think the tunnel will have a negative impact on your community or on London as a whole. Please keep it to less than 500 words.

Is there a personal impact on you from the tunnel? Perhaps your neighbourhood will suffer from increased noise or pollution, or the extra traffic or tolling will make life harder for your business. If so, please make sure you include this in your representation.

Here are 10 points you might like to consider including:

• New roads generate more traffic. The tunnel won’t make the road network more resilient – it’ll only increase congestion. (You might like to name specific roads or areas here.)
• The scheme will not support regeneration in the affected areas, as claimed, and won’t provide the promised economic and social benefits.
• TfL has not properly considered alternatives, including new public transport and better management of the existing network.
• Risks to the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site have not been properly considered.
• TfL hasn’t given adequate information on the environmental impacts of the scheme (for example, its air quality assessments are still preliminary ones).
• There isn’t adequate mitigation for noise pollution (you might like to name affected areas).
• The environmental impact of better access for HGVs and buses has not been properly considered.
• TfL has not properly considered the effects of tolling on the wider road network (for example, on routes to the Rotherhithe Tunnel, which would remain free, though you may also have other examples).
• Tolling will also have a negative impact on local businesses – firms in other parts of London will not have to pay charges to get around.
• There’s been insufficient consultation with communities that will be affected by the scheme.

This factsheet from the Planning Inspectorate will give you more guidance in how to respond.

What are we saying?

You can see our full submission here. Feel free to refer to this in your response.

What happens next?

If the Planning Inspectorate decides your response is relevant, it’ll write back to you and let you know that you’ve become an “interested party”. This means you can take part in the planning process.

Later this year, it’ll hold a preliminary meeting to decide on the nuts and bolts of the inquiry (not the proposal itself) – the main issues, the timetable, and other matters. You’ll be able to speak at this.

You’ll also be able to submit more detailed evidence – so if you have particular expertise in one aspect of the proposal, then you may like to bear this in mind.

The Planning Inspectorate has more information on how it all works (scroll down to advice note eight), and you can also call or email it with any questions you may have.

This process should be over in spring 2017, when the panel will come up with a recommendation. It’ll then go to the Secretary of State for Transport for a final decision.

What else can I do?

As always, you may like to copy your response and send it to your local London Assembly members, MP and/or councillors. You can get their details via www.writetothem.com. We’d also like to see your response – particularly if you’re using a point we haven’t made. Email us at info@silvertowntunnel.co.uk.

Please take part in this – your responses are a powerful weapon

The more people take part in this process, the more the panel will see the strength of opinion against this ill thought-through scheme. If you have a residents’ group, tenants’ group or amenity society, please consider asking them to respond too. You may also like to share this post on social media.

Please fill in the form by 31 August – the Silvertown Tunnel is too important and dangerous a proposal to allow others to speak for you.

The South Circular as it enters Catford: we think polluting vehicles should be banned from here too

Have you got 10 minutes free? If you do, then you can do something quick that’ll tell Sadiq Khan that if he takes air pollution seriously, he needs to scrap the Silvertown Tunnel.

A few weeks ago, London’s mayor launched a consultation into what to do about our city’s air pollution problem. He has a number of ideas – one of them is expanding the planned Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) so it runs to the North and South Circular roads.

On the whole, we think it’s good that Sadiq Khan is taking some action on air pollution.

But carrying on with the Silvertown Tunnel proposal – which will attract more traffic and more pollution to our streets – threatens to undo this work.

We also think the ULEZ should be widened to cover all of London, as Khan’s proposals miss out pollution hotspots such as Plumstead and Catford.

So, please head here (you’ll need to sign up for an account with the City Hall website) and tell the mayor what you think.

When you get to the free text in question 18, please remind him that if he wants to take the issue seriously, he needs to scrap the Silvertown Tunnel. Please act quickly – the consultation closes this Friday.

If you’re a resident of Lewisham or Greenwich boroughs, and you’ve got a bit more time, you can also have your say on new air quality strategies for these areas.

For Lewisham Council, head here. If you live in Greenwich, go here.

We’ll be back in touch soon with some help in responding to the Silvertown Tunnel planning process.