Local Liberal Democrat Councillors Lisa Rajan, David Hubber, Paul Noblet, Simon Hughes MP and myself have been inundated with emails from concerned passengers in Surrey Docks about the future of Greenland Pier. This also affects people who use the service and live just over in Lewisham.
We held a meeting on Monday morning with Gill Davies, Southwark Council's Director of Environment and Leisure. Our main aim for the meeting was to get Southwark Council to stop the temporary closure of the pier on 28th February, and instead keep it open for the Thames Clippers boats to use. We know how vital and valued the commuter boat service is and how many people rely on it. We also wanted to ask for a temporary pontoon to be installed if the existing one really does need to be removed for repairs.
We divided the pier issue into two parts - the immediate future, following the official Notice to Quit served on Thames Clippers, and the longer term future of the pier.
As far as the immediate situation is concerned, the Notice to Thames Clippers was, we were told, a legal requirement to enable the pier to be inspected and repaired as necessary. Thames Clippers should be granted a temporary licence to enable them to continue to use the pier until such time as it may be removed temporarily for any works. We have stressed that there should be no discontinuance of the service on 28 February, nor until it is essential for the pier to be closed, and we were led to believe that this would be the case. We also asked that users should be given one month's notice before the pontoon is actually removed.
Further, given that only the pontoon part of the pier (the platform) needs to be removed, because other parts, such as the gangway, could be repaired on site, we believe that it should be possible to hire a temporary pontoon to be put in place during the period the present one has to be away and we have urged the Council to take up this suggestion, though it will involve some expenditure.
In relation to the longer term, the Council has decided to dispose of the pier and has received a number of bids in response to their tendering process. We realise that there are questions about the validity of the process, but this is to a certain extent a separate issue. We have stressed the need for whoever runs the pier in the future to undertake contractually to allow its continued use - at affordable rates - for Thames Clippers and any other appropriate river services.
We are also asking the council to add in a clause in the sale contract that requires the new owner to put in a temporary pontoon if it needs to remove part of the pier for repair work.
We are also pressing Transport for London to take a more active part in this matter and we believe progress is being made in this area.
To summarise:
1. River boat services should continue after 28th February.
2. We are continuing to work to ensure that the service is not interrupted, or if this is not possible, that it should be interrupted for the very minimum period
3. If Southwark Council disposes of the pier, this should have no negative impact on the commuter services that are so vital a part of an integrated transport system for London.
We will keep local passengers updated as soon as we have more information.