TfL has been told to ‘put your shaft elsewhere’ in a council meeting on the proposed new Bakerloo Line extension.
It follows a debate on where TfL should build a 25-metre high exit-and-ventilation shaft: at the Faraday Gardens football pitch, or the Bricklayers Arms roundabout.
TfL has said the shaft is necessary due to the distance between Elephant and Castle tube station and the closest station proposed along Old Kent Road.
At a Full Council meeting on March 22, Labour members carried a vote for Southwark to endorse building the shaft at Bricklayers, while agreeing to have two Bakerloo stops along Old Kent Road.
The issue was raised by Peter Wright, chair of the Bricklayers Arms TRA, who told the meeting “We should encourage the council to press TfL to consider other sites”.
He argued both Faraday and Bricklayers were too close to schools, and that seven years of construction would cause added noise and air pollution.
Peter said: “If TfL cannot be persuaded to not use the Bricklayers Arms site, then we would ask that the council consider and press for an underground station be built there, so that local people can benefit from it.”
The Lib Dems also reiterated their belief that there should be a third stop – the first to be sited at Bricklayers Arms. But the calls were rejected in a vote.
And in a Town Hall debate, Labour Faraday ward councillor Lorraine Lauder MBE urged TfL to “put your shaft elsewhere”.
“My dad and his brothers campaigned for the gardens in the 1970s when housing estates nearby were being demolished, and the park was made bigger. This is the worst time to lose another football pitch,” Cllr Lauder said.
Her ward colleague Paul Fleming called it “an absurdity” to put the shaft in Faraday.
“We are talking about closing down a play space and a permanent vent within feet of homes and a school,” Cllr Fleming said.
“The proposals were made despite Camberwell and Walworth being snubbed as locations for a new tube stop.”
Cllr Damian O’Brien, the Lib Dem transport spokesperson, said: “Labour Councillors are letting down local residents by allowing TfL to consider a shaft at the Bricklayers Arms, without insisting on a station.
“Liberal Democrat councillors are fighting the corner of residents of Bricklayers Arms who need a new station on the new Bakerloo Line Extension. Tesco on the Old Kent Road is too far for the first station to be built. “
Two more shafts would be built between New Cross Gate and Lewisham station, and at the end of the line in Lewisham. TfL has said it hopes to complete the Bakerloo extension project by 2029.
Visit www.tfl.gov.uk/bakerloo-extension to take part in the public consultation and fill out a questionnaire, the deadline for which is April 21.