Council slammed after foot tunnel littered with ‘human poo’

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

A disgusted resident claims a foot tunnel he uses every day is “full of rubbish”, with “dog or human poo” being left on the stairs for up to a week.

Ferenc Habermann, 45, has lived in Plumstead for the past 16 years.

He said: “Generally, it is very dirty… It’s the same on the other side. Basically, the whole staircase is full of cans and rubbish everywhere. There was one occasion where there was some dog or human who did a crap on the stairs. It was there for days or maybe even a week.”

The local said he uses the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels nearly every day for cycling and commuting to work in east London, but has had a number of issues with the Woolwich foot tunnel in recent months.

Mr Habermann also said he regularly has issues carrying his bike up and down the stairs of the tunnel. The resident claims the lift at the north entrance of the Woolwich Tunnel has been broken for the past eight months.

He said: “You would expect that it’s better maintained. In Greenwich, I know that they’ve done a lot of maintenance on the lifts, and the Greenwich [tunnel] is marginally better. But the other weekend we went cycling and we wanted to cross and the lift wasn’t working there either, so I don’t know what the council does.”

The Woolwich foot tunnel connects Woolwich to North Woolwich in Newham, while the Greenwich foot tunnel links Cutty Sark to Island Gardens in Tower Hamlets. Despite both tunnels crossing the river, the two crossings are managed by Greenwich council.

The resident said he has been regularly tweeting about the state of the tunnels since last August but has not gotten a response from Greenwich council since September.

Mr Haberman said the situation has been “frustrating” for him and his partner, with no update at the north entrance to say when the north lift will be repaired.

He said: “For the past two years, they have used Covid as an excuse. That they are short-staffed and they can’t do this, they can’t do that. Surely there must be a timeline on it.”

He added: “For us to carry the bikes up is inconvenient, but it’s not impossible. Obviously, it would be better with the lift, but there might be other people who are disabled or less able to walk.”

Greenwich council were approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.

On its website, the council said it was aware of ongoing issues with the lifts of the foot tunnels but added that their “historic nature” means they are vulnerable to unpredictable faults, even once any current problems have been fixed.

Pictured top: Ferenc Habermann, 45, and rubbish in the Woolwich foot tunnel (Picture: Joe Coughlan and Ferenc Habermann)