Search questions

• Reference: 2024/0518
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

How does the LFB plan to allocate resources for an independent root cause analysis of the planning failures at 8 Albert Embankment, and what is the budget set aside for this analysis?

• Reference: 2024/0519
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

You have consulted on plans to use a shuttle bus to ferry cyclists through the Silvertown Tunnel. What would be the maximum capacity of this proposed service, in cyclists per hour? Would the service be able to carry cargo bikes? What would be the expected subsidy per cycle trip to run this service, assuming crossing was free?

• Reference: 2024/0520
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

Can you confirm that future availability payments for the Silvertown Tunnel will be made directly out of TfL general funds, and are independent of any income from tolls on Silvertown or Blackwall? Can you also let me know the percentage of TfL income that currently comes from fare-payers, and the percentage of income that comes from drivers, and how those percentages will change if/when Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels are tolled?

• Reference: 2024/0521
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

One of your justifications for building the Silvertown Tunnel is that it will provide an alternative if Blackwall northbound is blocked. However, TfL's charging policy rejects the option of using Silvertown as a charged alternative for when Blackwall is congested, because congestion at Blackwall northbound rapidly backs up past the exit to Silvertown. In your modelling, at peak hours, how long does it take for the queue from a blockage at Blackwall to extend past the exit slip to Silvertown?

• Reference: 2024/0522
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

You have claimed that the Silvertown Tunnel and the proposed new toll on Blackwall, when implemented together, will bring an overall improvement in air quality. Can you quantify this improvement, in tons of NOX and tons of PM per year?

• Reference: 2024/0523
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

Your 'carbon and energy statement' for the Silvertown Tunnel states that this scheme, which will cost Londoners over £2bn over 25 years, will lead to a long-term increase in CO2 emissions, even if the Blackwall Tunnel is tolled as planned, and the effects of that tolling are included in scheme emissions. How does spending £2bn on this scheme support your climate policies and targets?

• Reference: 2024/0524
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

Can you confirm the fact that all of your pollution, carbon, and economic modelling for the Silvertown tunnel includes the effect of both a toll on Silvertown and the effect of a new toll on the existing Blackwall Tunnel, for the entire lifetime of the scheme, despite the fact that any such tolls are at the discretion of whoever is Mayor at the time, and despite the fact that there is no obligation on future mayors to implement such a toll? What is your estimate of the likelihood of all of these mayors independently deciding to implement this charge?

• Reference: 2024/0525
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

All of the supposed economic benefits from the Silvertown Tunnel come from supposed reductions in congestion. However, in the business case for the scheme, you have not disaggregated the effects of the tunnel from the effects of a potential toll on the Blackwall Tunnel. Can you provide any credible proof that opening the Silvertown Tunnel itself, with or without a toll, provides any economic benefits, either in the case where the Blackwall Tunnel is tolled, or where it is not?

• Reference: 2024/0526
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

Nearly all of the supposed economic benefits from the Silvertown Tunnel come from supposed reductions in congestion - and these depend in turn on future traffic forecasts. All the forecasts you have used to estimate these benefits come from before your 2018 Mayor's Transport Strategy (MTS), which has targets for substantial reductions in car use. Given that the 2018 MTS was established before you signed the contract for Silvertown, why didn't you reevaluate the case for the scheme using updated figures consistent with the MTS before signing the contract?

• Reference: 2024/0527
• Question by: Hina Bokhari
• Meeting date: 22 February 2024

When Silvertown opens, with or without a toll, it will send between 20,000 and 30,000 more vehicles into Newham every day, even with a toll. Please tell me how many extra tons of NOX and PM that extra traffic will bring into Newham each year?