Kent reacts to Lower Thames Crossing approval

KentOnline / KMTV

The £9 billion project has proven controversial despite hopes it will ease congestion.  Oliver Leader Saxe reports.

Transcript

00:00Sunshine in the shadow of the Dartford Crossing.

00:04But give it a few hours and the roads and roundabouts here in Greenhithe

00:09will be clogged with traffic.

00:11I'm only walking the Amazon there.

00:14It takes me about five minutes, ten minutes to go there.

00:16When the traffic around us, it takes about one and a half hour to get there.

00:21So I drive to Bromley every day.

00:23So I do 20 miles.

00:24So literally I have to go past the Dartford Crossing every day.

00:28And probably three mornings out of seven, it actually impacts me a lot.

00:32So my journey is a 13-mile journey.

00:35It probably takes me an hour and ten minutes every day.

00:38Well, I'm an undercaptor.

00:40I have to work through the night to avoid the traffic.

00:42But sometimes, if you're lucky with a lot of things,

00:45if you're safe along the crossing, you just can't move anywhere, my dear.

00:48There is a glimmer of hope, however.

00:50This week the government approved a new £9 billion crossing

00:55between Kent and Essex.

00:58With the aim of easing pressure on the vital road link.

01:02Yeah, this is the number one priority for Dartford residents.

01:05When I knock on the door, as I do very regularly,

01:08or talk to people in the streets, in pubs, in my coffee mornings,

01:13the one thing they're united on is they want to see the Dartford Crossing happen.

01:18Because they live every day with the effects of gridlock.

01:21So they can't get to hospital appointments.

01:23Can't get the kids to school on time.

01:25A lot of people can't work in Essex

01:28because they can't rely on getting to work

01:31at a time when the employer expects them there.

01:34So that will all change with the Lower Thames Crossing.

01:37The congestion problems in this part of Kent come down to capacity.

01:41The Dartford Crossing was simply never meant to carry this much traffic.

01:46180,000 vehicles make the crossing every single day.

01:52Rather than the intended 135,000 freight companies in this part of Kent.

01:59Hope the Lower Thames Crossing will pave the way

02:02for faster travel between Essex and us here in the county.

02:07The Lower Thames Crossing is a really vital route for logistics.

02:11The current Dartford Crossing, as we all know,

02:14hugely suffers from regular delays and congestion.

02:17And 70% of the traffic heading to and from the Port of Dover

02:21uses the Dartford Crossing.

02:22So it's not just about an important piece of infrastructure in the southeast

02:26which will help alleviate congestion here,

02:28but it's also about the vital trade route

02:31that it also provides for the rest of the UK.

02:33Not everyone is convinced.

02:35Despite billions being required for the project,

02:38how much of this will fall on taxpayers or private investment is hard to say.

02:45It's going to cause seven years of construction chaos

02:49but only five years of relief at Dartford.

02:52It's absolute madness that we're spending 10, 12, probably 16 billion pounds in total

02:59with all the other schemes that we need to make it function.

03:02We might as well just dig a hole and chuck all the money in it

03:05for the good it's going to cause to us.

03:08It may not be a bridge over troubled waters,

03:10but the new crossing has certainly sent ripples up and down the Thames.

03:16Oliver, Leader of the Saks for KMTV in Greenhithe.

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