Thames Gateway

Thames Gateway is a marketing term for those parts of East London, Essex and Kent bordering the Thames estuary.

Geographically, the Thames Gateway is considered to run from Westferry in the west through Docklands to Southend-on-Sea and Sittingbourne in the east.

The British Government believes that there is great potential for economic growth and social advancement in this region, and that the development has the potential to relieve growth pressures on London and more fully developed regions surrounding London.

The development of this region is organised under the auspices of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, in co-ordination with the three Regional Development Agencies concerned: Greater London Authority, the East of England Development Agency and the South East England Development Agency. The project aims to improve the economy of the region through renaissance of urban areas and development of areas that are as yet not urbanised.

Comparisons may be drawn with developments east of Paris along the Marne valley.

Environmental Concerns

Concerns have been raised that development of this area will damage the North Kent Marshes, over looked as an Environmentally Sensitive Area, by the government. Concerns raised by local residents, as well as conservation charities such as the RSPB recently halted proposals for a large international airport on Cliffe Marshes.

The scheme was demonstrated to be poorly thought out, and substantially rejected by many local councils and residents, voluntary organisations and charities with a vested interest in the area, and by the outright rejection from airport authorities.

The north of Kent has historically been a marshland area, since before even the Roman invasion of 55 BC and that part which still survives, stretching from Whitstable to Dartford, has been subject to numerous international orders concerning scientific and natural regulations that recognise the area as the most important natural wetland in northern Europe.

Monitored by local land owners and wildlife custodians, the RSPB, over 200,000 migrant birds use the mudflats of the Thames marshes as a regular haven in there migratory journeys between the arctic and Africa.

Perhaps made famous by Charles Dickens, these wet lands are under great pressure by developers, and in addition to the great variety of wild life found on and along the Thames, these marshes offer invaluable natural flood protection for the billions of pounds (Sterling) invested in the current London area, ever under threat of flooding.

The Medway Councils Riverside park is a god example of the real and useful development preferred in this area, with open public access to the Gillingham marshes, the Saxon shore way leads out in both directions along the Medway estuary, which leads into the Thames estuary.

The RSPB have over recent years acquired considerable stretches of Cliffe marshes on the Hoo peninsular, and also is developing an ambitious project for the education of visitors to the value of sustaining this area unchanged and free from development.

Development To Date

"In 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development defined Sustainable Development as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'".

The very idea of promoting the ecological significance of the area by increasing public accessibility to the mashes and wetlands under threat, by improved transport corridors is nonsense and will cause further errosion of the area under review by these developments.

Before 2003 most conspicuous development was situated west of Beckton although housing schemes at Chafford Hundred, Chatham and Greenhithe have been substantial, a large shopping centre at Bluewater.

Future Developments

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, currently still under construction, runs through the designated development area, crossing under the Thames near Dartford with an international railway station proposed at Ebbsfleet in Kent, and a second at Stratford in East London. This venture will shave 15 minutes of the journey time from London to Paris, and has to date exhausted nominated funding agreements several times, costing the taxpayer billions in excess of the proposed ammount.

On the Essex side of the Thames, at Southend-on-Sea the council is using money provided through the scheme to redevelop the town centre and seafront and create a "transport corridor" along the A13.

Transport for London is currently proposing a bridge between Beckton and Greenwich to be called the Thames Gateway Bridge. Along with the extensions of the Docklands Light Railway across the river to Woolwich, this will improve links between to two sides of the river and it is hoped this help spur economic growth and reduce the stress on existing road transport links.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his July 2004 spending review, that there would be money made available for extensive house building on brownfield sites in the region in order to ease the high demand for affordable housing in the South East.

Plans for a Lower Thames Crossing between Canvey or Shell Haven and the Hoo Peninsular were shelved as they were dependent upon the creation of Cliffe Airport.

There are also many plans that have been proposed to develop the area around Stratford as part of the plan for London to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

See also

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