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East Cross chronicle
Page 142
Page 143
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THE STORY "East Cross Opens" (CM, March 16) relating the opening of the Blackwail Tunnel-Hackney through route to East London, gives the impression that the new dual-carriageway will solve everybody's problems in East London Yet the road has, in fact, been open for some six years as a dual-carriageway from the Blackwall Tunnel to Bow, and as a motorwayfromBow to Hackney Wick. All that has happened now is that the northern height restriction of about 12ft 3in and the southern of about 13ft 4in have been replaced with a 17ft clearance underpass.
Your report states that: "It will ease the chronic congestion this corridor has suffered for decades and will improve the local environment by drawing traffic from residential areas and other less suitable roads''. This is absolute drivel. All that the removal of the height restriction means is that high vehicles which were forced to travel from Bow to Leyton /Leytonstone via the Al 1/Al2 can now use the Bow-Hackney Wick motorway.
What nobody mentions is that this motorway deposits all of the vehicles it attracts in the middle of the Leyton housing development, on roads that were barely adequate in the days of the horse-bus. With parked cars — and there is no reason why they should not be there — it is not possible in many sections for two lorries to pass, and, indeed, one-way systems have had to be instigated, with thousands of vehicles sardined into the totally unsuitable residential streets. The usual journey time for 300 yards of road is now about 20 minutes. It seems that the GLC's Shelagh Roberts should have travelled the mile or so to the Hackney end of the motorway to see for herself what she considers to be an "improvement to the local environment".
My sympathy goes to the residents of Hackney and Leyton, where the fumes and filth from motor vehicles really do have to be seen to be appreciated. A notice on a lamp post reads ' 'Hackney Wick NOT Agony Wick", and very apt it is — but then Hackney and Leytor are on the other side of Londor to Westminster and precious few MPs and councillors trave this way.
The only way to ease the problems of this area is to link up the two sections of motorway (Al 02 (M) and Ml 1) as a matter of urgency. Ordnance Survey sheet 177 (East London) shows very clearly the streets through which the traffic corridor passes. One should bear in mind that this corridor is not only a major eastern exit route but also the "East Cross" route — he socalled by-pass around eastern inner London.
Build these four miles of motorway and the "chronic congestion" will ease, otherwise this £50m so-called
'improvementhas achieved iothing except gross inconfenience and annoyance for housands of residents of this mrt of London
N. A. SHARP, rngatestone, Essex.