We live next to the £2,200,000,000 new tunnel but it feels like ‘we’ve been s*** on’

London now has a new river crossing after the Silvertown Tunnel opened to drivers today – but locals fear it will increase pollution and congestion.

The Silvertown Tunnel has now launched after more than a decade of construction and even longer planning.

It means drivers will now have to pay £4 every time they use the tunnel during daytime.

Toll charges now apply to every crossing through the nearby Blackwall tunnel as well. You can read more about the charges and discounts here.

Transport for London (TfL) heralded the Silvertown Tunnel as an improvement for Londoners and a boost to public transport links with 21 buses an hour and a cycle shuttle bus, which will be free for the first year.

However, the £2,200,000,000 tunnel is only for vehicle traffic and cycling and walking through it is prohibited – the main concern raised by campaigners Metro has spoken with.

‘At the expense of poorest residents’

Metro went along to an anti-Silvertown protest outside the City Hall today, just yards from the tunnel’s mouth on the Newham side.

Residents and campaigners from Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition handed a letter to the Green Party London Assembly member Caroline Russell to give to the Mayor of London, calling for the tunnel to be repurposed for cycling and walking.

Anna-Marie Ashton, a mum and representative of Born Everywhere Made in Newham group, said locals are ‘really concerned by the high levels of pollution.’

The mother-of-two told Metro: ‘We understand that we need decent infrastructure, but it must not come at the expense of the poorest residents. We’ve already got the City Airport, which very few local people use, but we have the noise and the pollution.

‘And now, we are about to have the Silvertown Tunnel, which isn’t really for local people’s benefit. We tend to be a very local community.

‘Now we feel like we are going to have a lifetime more of pollution and more congestion that isn’t going to benefit very many of us.’

She said the free bus service for at least a year felt like ‘a token gesture.’

‘It doesn’t feel like we are being treated fairly,’ she said.

‘I’m a real advocate for improving the area and I grew up here, but it feels like we are being s*** on by national and, even now, by a London government,’ she Anna-Marie said.

‘It feels like Newham is treated as the borough where no one will complain, because ultimately, it’s poor people, we are transient people, we are migrants and people are busy,’ she continued.

Nate Higgins, a Green Party councillor at Newham, told Metro he felt ‘quite deflated’ this morning, accusing the project of being ‘misguided from the start’ and that it will ‘increase air pollution.’

He said it was ‘unfair’ to put the tolls on east Londoners and ‘people who are disproportionately more likely to be poor and struggling with the cost of transport generally.’

Caroline Russell told Metro said ‘a big new road will just introduce more traffic’ and that it is ‘not the kind of climate solution the mayor should be looking for.’

‘They should have built a tunnel that was for walking, cycling and public transport – that’s the kind of tunnel we need. And then they could have used the Blackwall Tunnel for the commercial traffic.’

‘It’s a solution for the past,’ she continued, adding that even if vehicles are electric, tyre wear will still produce ‘PM2.5 particulate pollution, which is incredibly health-damaging.’

Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition said they fear the tunnel will only benefit HGVs.

Victoria Rance said: ‘Traffic is only going to get worse and the tolls could be scrapped. There are no tolls at night anyway.’

Simon Piranie, from the Stop the Silvertown Tunnel group and a Woolwich resident, said they have ‘lost the battle, but we haven’t lost the war’ as the tunnel launched.

He said a vision of London with ‘fewer cars’ is ‘attractive to people and catching on,’ while the UK is ‘often behind’ compared to the rest of Europe with its approach to transport and the environment.

The Mayor of London said: ‘The new Silvertown Tunnel will transform travel in the South and East of our city, particularly across the River Thames, and will help to address the chronic congestion and poor air quality around Blackwall Tunnel. 

‘The new tunnel will reduce journey times, help to manage pollution levels and improve cross-river public transport.’

He said the original plans for the tunnel developed by the previous mayor in 2012 were improved ‘to make the scheme greener and to include a package of measures to support Londoners, local residents and businesses.’

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