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Two years ago Transco
gave notice to Lewisham Council that they would have to dig up the junction.
This was part of a rolling programme to replace all the old cast iron gas mains
with new safer plastic pipes.
Despite this Lewisham
went ahead with a bid for money from Transport for London to replace the old
roundabout with a new 'safer' roundabout and narrow the road which lorries
& buses already found difficult to navigate. The rules of the grant meant
they had to spend it by the end of the financial years.
Hence in November 2003
Lewisham's contractor Conways began work with completion schedules for the end
of January.
Things went badly.
Workmen were hard to spot so it was not a surprise that it began to over run
seriously. And then many people were surprised at the black'n'white horror. In
appearance and in workmanship. The road re-aligning made the junction more
hazardous. So the safer roundabout was hit and damaged several
times.
Then Transco came and
dug the whole thing up before it was finished!
In response to the
outcry Lewisham agreed that the replacement would be more sympathetically
tiled. It wasn't. The replacement is arguably even more wobbly than the first.
The centre appears to be built largely of sand so a season or so of heavy rain
may make it worse!
The closure of the whole
or part of Kirkdale for nearly a year has been devasting for local business.
The Esso station lost 60% of its trade and the smaller shops suffered not only
few shoppers but problems getting goods delivered. A situation not helped by
Lewisham's zealous parking wardens. |
