It is fitting that during the final week of the Winter Olympics, the campaign to save the Vauxhall Ski Jump is gaining momentum. The veracious Vauxhall Society [gosh] is putting pressure on Lambeth Council to come clean about what the plans are for the iconic Vauxhall Bus Station.
Built just ten years ago at a cost of £4m, the future of the stylish ski jump style interchange is currently uncertain. Many issues are caught up in the masterplan to transform Vauxhall: the flow of the gyratory, a cycle-friendly interchange and a civic public realm [URGH] for SE11.
The fear is that these are all simply a metaphor for retail and a corporate takeover of the area. The Battersea and Nine Elms development down the road inflicts an affluent glass house landscape on the Vauxhall surrounds. You somehow don’t think that the new wealth coming into the area is going to be satisfied with the new Sainsbury’s along the Wandsworth Road.
£25m has been floated as a figure available to help invest in the future of Vauxhall Cross. The problem is that station users and residents aren’t really sure what the masterplan is being proposed by the three main powerbrokers - Lambeth Council, TfL and the Mayor of London.
A motion [PDF, p.15] was submitted by Cllr Ishbel Brown to Full Council on 29 January:
“Council resolves to carry out a meaningful consultation with Vauxhall residents and commuters on their preferences for the bus station and gyratory including an option for the status quo in advance of taking any irrevocable decision.”
The amendment put forward by Council Leader Cllr Lib Peck removed the status quo option.
Same as it ever was, Comrades. Same as it ever was.
A consultation - of sorts - has been taking place since 2007, only three years after the solar panel defining ski slopes first stood proud over Vauxhall. A March 2012 survey led to a poxy response rate of only 256 replies; 45,000 transport users pass through the station each day.
Don’t blame the respondents - ask questions as to why the users weren’t reached.
The usual twaddle of ‘engaging with the public’ bollocks appears to be taking place. Indirect and fluffy questions are posed. No one has ever been asked if they want to keep the bus station.
“I support the idea for a new district heart at Vauxhall Cross, with a new high street lined with shops and places to eat and drink.”
‘cos you’re not going to disagree and ask for the site to be returned to a post WW2 bombsite, are you?
And exactly where will the ‘district heart of Vauxhall Cross’ be located? Slap in the centre of the ski slopes, the one place that allows an easy dispersal of transport users using mainline, tube and bus services…
I have little faith in online petitions as a momentum for change; they are half-decent as raising awareness, but ineffectual when it comes to influencing real infrastructure and policy.
Fine work though from the Vauxhall Society in helping to spread the message via change.org:
“VBS, London’s second busiest bus station, is a vital resource, an amenity allowing people from all over London to interchange with bus / train and Tube quickly, safely, under cover and with minimum exposure to the traffic pollution of the Vauxhall Gyratory.”
I bashed out my LOVE for Vauxhall Bus Station rather late at night:
“The Vauxhall bus station is unique in design. It is a defining feature for an area crying out for an identity. More importantly however is the genuine integrated transport policy that the bus station is able to present. It is vital to keep the bus services in a central location.”
Others have provided more reasoned responses:
“I use the bus station almost every day and appreciate being able to change buses conveniently, protected from weather and traffic”
“I have travelled via Vauxhall for more than 40 years and know how much easier the bus station has made it.”
“The Vauxhall interchange and bus station is a vital local asset. It has made the bus / rail / tube interchange safer and more accessible for thousands. Please do not let it be destroyed.”
Helping out with the campaign is Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey. Never underestimate the power of Mss H (a HUGE ta btw for helping out this week with a little hyperlocal Council Tax matter…)
Pulling down a defining structure ten years after it was first built seems the cop-out response for addressing the wider question of Vauxhall Cross. Traffic needs to flow from East to West, North to South, and vice versa. Cyclists need to be accommodated in this plan, plus all other public transport users.
The smoke screen of a ‘new district heart at Vauxhall Cross’ shouldn’t take priority over the practicalities of allowing Vauxhall to flow. You can’t impose a High Street culture on a community that already has other options.
And don’t go believing that artisan bread and all that bollocks will be replacing the No 2 bus stop. A Transpontine Westfield would not be welcome around here.
All change…?