Campaigners plan rally for Tube station

BY LILY HESS

shuz@slpmedia.co.uk

Residents and traders are holding a rally next month to urge Transport for London (TfL) to build a new Tube station. Campaigners want a new Bakerloo Line stop built at Bricklayers Arms, near the junction between New and Old Kent Roads.

They are holding a rally at the traffic island by the site from 11.45am to 12.15pm on November 4.

It has been organised by groups Bricklayers Arms Tenants’ and Residents’ Association, Tower Bridge Road Alliance and the Bermondsey Street Area Partnership.

TfL has proposed two possible sites for stations, one near the Tesco store on Old Kent Road and another further down the same road, near the Toys R Us store.

It only plans to construct a ventilation shaft at the at the Bricklayers Arms site. But the groups say thousands of people have signed a petition for a Tube station at Bricklayers’ Arms.

They also say the Tesco store listed as the TfL’s proposed tube station location is too far from Elephant and Castle for many people. TfL completed a public consultation in April this year, which it says received 4,899 responses.

According to TfL, the consultation report states the preferred shaft location between Elephant and Castle and the proposed first station on Old Kent Road was the Bricklayers’ Arms junction area, as opposed to the other option of a public park site on Portland Street.

The report lists the most common reasons given among consultees for this decision to be that the site was undesirable anyway, that a station should also be provided on this location, and that it would cause less disturbance and disruption. A further public consultation is expected in 2018.

The proposed Bakerloo Line extension includes two new stations in Old Kent Road, one at New Cross Gate and another in Lewisham. The extension is due to be completed by 2028/29.