Hopes have been dashed yet again for thousands of people who have to travel on East London’s roads during the Olympics who were told rules would be relaxed. Despite further representations by Local London Assembly Member John Biggs, the Mayor and Transport for London have refused to relax the banned right hand turns or to re-instate pedestrian crossings on the Olympic Road Network and a scaling back of operating hours will not apply to any of East London’s roads.
At the end of January TfL announced that the operating hours on parts of the Olympic Route Network, where lanes are reserved for Olympic vehicles and many crossings and turnings, are to be banned, were to be relaxed. However it has since become clear that the relaxed rules will only apply to far flung parts of the Network.
John raised this issue again at Mayor’s Question Time but the Mayor has refused to budge. John Biggs said: “This really isn’t good enough. The rules are punishing East Enders for the benefit of a few Olympic bureaucrats. If the bans stay in place my constituents in Wapping and other parts of East London will be isolated, local businesses will suffer as their workers struggle in and I remain worried about the lack of safe crossing points. I am seeking an early meeting with the Deputy Mayor for Transport to push this further and hope that common sense will then prevail.”
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