Silvertown Tunnel: Sadiq Khan urged to consider ‘alternative uses for the tunnel’

Campaigners have urged Sadiq Khan to not “delay further” and initiate a review into his controversial Silvertown Tunnel project, after researchers recommended the mayor cancel the scheme to meet key carbon budgets.

A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications said a 72% reduction in car travel activity is necessary if the capital is to achieve an emissions target set by the climate research group the Tyndall Centre.

The four Imperial College academics behind the report list several policies which could be enacted to meet the carbon budget, including “an immediate halt in urban road building projects and existing roads repurposed to prioritise active transport”, such as the Silvertown Tunnel, “built to facilitate more river crossings in cars”.

The tunnel, which is due to connect Greenwich to Silvertown in Newham, is championed by the mayor as a means of reducing congestion in the area and improving public transport.

However, campaigners have argued it will instead result in 30,000 new vehicle journeys through streets already suffering with high levels of pollution.

Leading academics, such as clean-air expert Professor Frank Kelly, who Mr Khan has regularly referenced due to his support for the ULEZ expansion, is among those to have previously called on the mayor to scrap the project.

In their letter to Mr Khan, the Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition referenced the Imperial College researchers’ findings that “large-scale reduction in car use is necessary to meet stringent carbon budgets and avoid high energy demand”, as well as the particular recommendation that schemes such as the Silvertown Tunnel be cancelled.

The group notes that if a review was to be initiated into the project, it could “facilitate consideration of alternative uses for the tunnel”, such as electrified public transport and other alternative modes.

“Given your commitment to addressing the climate emergency, and to taking climate scientists’ work into account when formulating policy, we urge you to not delay further, and to initiate such a review, that will take into account the new research from Imperial College, as well as other previously published work on formulating and meeting carbon budgets for the transport sector,” the letter ends.

A spokesperson for Mr Khan said: “The mayor is committed to reducing emissions in London and is taking world-leading action to tackle the climate crisis. The Silvertown Tunnel will transform the way people can travel in a part of London that currently has few options for crossing the Thames. 

“In addition to providing new, zero-emission, cross-river bus services, the tunnel will address the chronic vehicle congestion currently associated with the inadequate, Victorian-era Blackwall Tunnel. This means that the new tunnel will improve air quality in the area.

“A new user charge on both tunnels will also ensure there is no increase in traffic overall.”