Jonathan Rothwell on a foot and cycle path closure

Cars and a cyclist on a road — Greenway diversion Abbey Road (Credit – Jonathan Rothwell)

Campaigners say Thames Water is passing the buck on public safety, after it emerged that their closure of the Greenway foot and cycle path will balloon to double the distance and more than double the duration—cutting off walking and cycling journeys until 2028.

The Greenway was closed between Stratford and West Ham in September last year, with only two months’ notice. Since then there have been multiple injuries on the official diversion route, including an NHS worker who hit a pothole and broke her arm, and a man whose foot was run over while waiting at the lights on Abbey Road with his pregnant partner.

With the closure extending to Upper Road in October rendering efforts to improve the existing diversion useless, Newham Council is developing an alternative with cycleways on West Ham Lane. But these won’t be built until next year at the earliest, even assuming funding is available—and Thames Water has refused to delay the next phase of their works.

That will be cold comfort for thousands of people, including schoolchildren and hospital workers, who walk and cycle on the Greenway every day, and are now left to travel on dangerous alternative routes or find another mode of transport.

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