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cropper's column Entry tolls at Nine Elms
Page 51
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• The charging of a toll for all lorries entering London's new flower, fruit and vegetable market seems to be in contemplation by the authority concerned. This would be a startling new principle directed against commercial vehicles—to charge lorries for entry to private premises where they are essential for performing the work there.
The Nine Elms market is developing apace at its new location near Vauxhall in Southwest London. The construction of roads, bridges and buildings is well forward, ready for an expected completion by December 1973. The total cost, including land purchase, has risen from an original estimate of £31m to a current expectation of £36m. This is an enormous capital sum to be recovered, so it is not surprising if the market authority looks to all possible sources of securing extra revenue.
The site is not an, easy one, being of irregular shape, and rigidly divided into three sections by the main railway line from Waterloo. The first section of five acres is the entrance area, opening out of Nine Elms Lane. All vehicles, lorries and cars, are required to enter this way. It is here that the plans indicate the erection of toll booths. These may be intended only for private cars, for the parking of which the public is nowadays well resigned to paying ; it could well be more economical to charge cars on entry rather than at individual sites within the precinct. But the plan certainly suggests that lorries are to be charged on entry in the same way.
To reach the main market area, it is necessary to cross the rairway. This is effected by the new tunnel under the main line tracks, which is just about completed. The underpass is 37ft wide. Initially, it provides two southbound traffic lanes plus pedestrian access, but the tunnel can be converted into three traffic lanes should these be found, in practice, to be necessary.
The main area of the market will be primarily occupied with the two large, parallel buildings which will comprise the fruit and vegetable market and will offer a large number of separate trading sites, with well thought-out facilities for both the traders and their customers. It is then necessary to reach the third area by re-crossing the railway at a more easterly point. Three old railway tunnels, formerly used for the marshalling yards, have been improved and enlarged for this purpose. This third area has three functions : to house the flower market, which demands quite different technical provision from the fruit and vegetables market; to give ground for the very large administrative complex located in twin towers ; and to provide the main exit route into Wandsworth Road and so out to Vauxhall.
The charging of an entry toll is quite a new concept for areas such as markets, where usually the lorry is regarded as an essential constituent of its functions, which could not be performed without the assistance of a large volume of road transport.
If lorries are charged tolls, there is no option left to the transport operator except to re-charge the cost to the market customer.