SIMON EMMETT . net

Yesterday’s traffic chaos was quite frankly a nightmare, but it was the conduct of the ruling Labour group that really shows up their petulance.

It has been well documented that Greenwich’s Labour group do not want to work with the Mayor of London. They have been questioned at full council meetings as to why they will not attend policing meetings, and have criticised the Mayor for the fare increases – despite never mentioning anything whilst Ken Livingstone continually increased the fares during his two terms.

So, to yesterday. The traffic was chaotic, of that there is no doubt. But on Greenwich’s taxpayer-funded council website, in addition to the warnings about the closure was a political message criticising the Mayor over the lack of River Crossing. Plus, on BBC London’s evening news Cllr Brookes used the platform to continue the criticism. In the interview he made the bizarre statement the Mayor only needed “to spend a few pounds” to build the Thames Gateway bridge.

Cllr Brookes needs a reality check. For a start it will cost slightly more than “a few pounds”, considerably more. Then there is who would bear the cost of that. Londoners are already seeing higher council tax bills for the Olympics, so adding another levy to our bills would not go down well. Especially as we find the strains on our personal budgets even more thanks to the government’s incompetence at running this economy through this recession. So just like their national leaders they think that we should just throw hundreds of millions of pounds at project, without caring about where the money will come from, or how it will be paid for later.

Besides, even if Boris Johnson had sanctioned the building of the bridge on his very first day in office, a Thames Gateway bridge would not have been completed in time to prevent yesterday’s chaos. So was there any criticism aimed at his predecessor for sitting on the plans for so long, of course not.

The Greenwich Labour party have set out their stall that they have no intention of working with the Mayor of London, and that can only be to the detriment of Greenwich. They are acting like a child that didn’t get their way, after losing the London elections.