Silvertown tunnel demo: Pressure grows to cancel the project

Running Time: 4 mins 43 secs

Both Greenwich and Newham councils are against it. All the local Labour MPs and the London Labour party again. As this vibrant, angry demo shows, the local communities against it. But Sadiq Khan is still pressing on with the deeply unpopular Silvertown Tunnel project – at an eye-watering cost of £2.2 billion.

For a mayor who’s declared a climate emergency this is an absolute disgrace. Newham and Greenwich are already two of the most polluted areas in the country, with children in particular suffering from asthma and other serious health issues – and when we know that transport is the biggest source (27%) of UK greenhouse gas emissions, building a 4 lane highway under the Thames specifically for huge HGVs that don’t fit through the Blackwell tunnel is complete madness.

But the growing campaign is determined to stop a project that is putting the interests of big business above the health of the local people and the planet. Big infrastructure projects have been stopped before in the middle of the build – this demo shows that this project can be stopped too.