{"id":864259,"date":"2025-07-22T19:11:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/thames-gateway-bridge-plans-ditched-for-housing\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T19:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:11:19","slug":"thames-gateway-bridge-plans-ditched-for-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/thames-gateway-bridge-plans-ditched-for-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Thames Gateway Bridge plans ditched for housing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"peabody<\/p>\n

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Plans dating back more than 85 years to build the \u00a3500m Thames Gateway Bridge have finally been axed to free up land for development.<\/span><\/p>\n

A safeguarding order protecting land around the proposed bridge has been lifted by transport minister Simon Lightwood.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a written statement to parliament last Friday (18 July), he said the move reflected the government\u2019s commitment to ensuring transport and infrastructure supports housing delivery and drives growth as part of its<\/span> Plan for Change<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the outdated order had been an \u201cobstacle\u201d to vital development and was no longer needed as London\u2019s transport needs were now different following major investments in London\u2019s river crossings \u2013 notably the Dartford Crossing and the<\/span> Silvertown Tunnel<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSafeguarding is an important planning tool used to protect land for future transport schemes from conflicting development,\u201d Lightwood said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was intended to protect land for a road crossing that has not been delivered. Since then, London\u2019s transport priorities have evolved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe safeguarding directions therefore no longer align with the direction of transport policy or the evolving needs of this part of London.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe continued safeguarding of this land has been an obstacle to much-needed development, and I am therefore lifting these directions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is keen to deliver new homes and unlock economic opportunity, and we are taking steps to remove unnecessary barriers to progress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In May, the Crown Estate and Lendlease signed a \u00a324bn partnership to develop housing, as well as science and innovation districts, across the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

The partners said the programme would deliver 26,000 homes, of which about one-third would be classed as affordable, and up to 930,000 square metres of laboratory and workspace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sites named for development include areas around Euston station,<\/span> Thamesmead Waterfront<\/span><\/a> and Silvertown in London.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea for the Thames Gateway Bridge was first raised in the 1940s, and in 2004 it was proposed once more with preliminary planning permission, but in 2008, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London at the time,\u00a0 cancelled the scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2009, a scaled-down version was proposed but this too was axed in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Nicola Harley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plans dating back more than 85 years to build the \u00a3500m Thames Gateway Bridge have finally been axed to free up land for development. A safeguarding order protecting land around the proposed bridge has been lifted by transport minister Simon Lightwood. In a written statement to parliament last Friday (18 July), he said the move<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37822,86785],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-864259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gateway","8":"category-thames"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}