After months of concern for the future of Wandsworth Common, I’m pleased to report good news regarding the Crossrail 2 project.
By way of a recap, the proposed Crossrail 2 underground railway will run North-South across London with a stop at Tooting Broadway. This will bring huge benefits to our area, cutting journey times to central London, boosting the local economy and reducing the strain on existing overground and Northern line services.
However, the current consultation proposed access shafts on Wandsworth Common and Trinity Fields. These areas are much used and loved by sports groups, families, dog walkers and the whole community, so I set up a well-attended public meeting in January where the Crossrail 2 team explained their plans and took questions from residents. Since then I’ve been at the forefront of the campaign, working with the community to press Crossrail 2 to move the shafts to more suitable locations and protect our green spaces.
And it has worked! In total there were over 2,000 consultation submissions from local people objecting to the proposed sites, and the Crossrail 2 team has now confirmed to me it will remove the areas of surface interest on Wandsworth Common and Trinity Fields from the consultation and seek alternative locations later this year.
There is more to do, so I will continue to work with the 'Save Wandsworth Common' campaign to have Crossrail 2 consider an alternative route alignment which will divert the tunnel away from Wandsworth Common and Trinity Fields altogether. But this is an important first victory, which ensures that the initial (and inappropriate) choice of location for these shafts is not progressed.
I will continue to keep you updated on this and other local news, but in the meantime please follow me on Facebook or Twitter.