Brockley Station - more delays

A while back, we reported that Council officers were expecting a short delay in the reopening of the bridge across Brockley Station, which allows people to access it from the west side.

The bridge and much of Coulgate Street has been fenced-off for months now, while building work takes place to remodel the station and provide greater access to Brockley Common. It's a great project, which has been years in development. Unfortunately, it feels like years in construction too. The closures have added many minutes to the daily routines of commuters, make access problematic for pushchairs and wheelchairs, make east and west Brockley even more detached from one another and do businesses operating on either side of the tracks no favours. If you happen to live in Coulgate Street, it can't be much fun.

The project's problems were reportedly caused by the discovery of asbestos but the additional earthworks required were completed ages ago and work on site suggests no great sense of urgency to get the project back on track.

Cllr Dean Walton has been trying to get to the bottom of the delay and has written about it on his blog. We don't want to be accused of selectively quoting one of our local councillor's blog posts, so please go and read the whole thing for yourself here.

The upshot of his investigations is that there is no clear timetable for the project's completion or even for the reopening of the footbridge. The last response he got came yesterday from the Highways department, which simply read:

"Dear Cllr Walton We are urgently discussing progress on this scheme with the contractor. We are concerned to get the steps opened as quickly as possible. I will advise you as soon as I have firmer information."