Over 70 people turned out at our public meeting last night - thankyou so much to everyone who took time out of busy lives, at a difficult time of the evening, to show their support.
Thanks also to Ian Fry, Alastair Metcalf, Tom Higginson and Emily Mansell all of whom came along from Network Rail. Ian gave a highly informative presentation clearly stating the limits of Network Rail's interest in building a bridge across the rear of the tracks. Although they would support such a bridge, they would not at the moment be prepared to pay for it as it does not fit with their business plans. A bridge would cost approximately £4 million, which Ian confirmed represents about 1% of the over £400 million budget for the station redevelopment. Network Rail have kindly given permission for us to reproduce Ian's presentation here:
Download york_way_access_16_july_08.pdf
The meeting was chaired by Michael Edwards of King's Cross Railway Lands Group. Michael was able to set the scene enabling a truely positive and productive atmosphere throughout. He gave a presentation after Ian, putting the bridge into it's historical context, making the case for current and future need and finally calling for a visionary, imaginative bridge development project that would put the icing as well as the cherry on the cake of the new King's Cross Station. Michael's presentation can be downloaded here:
Download kx_exhibition.pdf
Cllr Paul Convery (Labour, Calendonian ward) gave a stirring talk, calling on all bodies that could become partners in the bridge project to see the bigger picture. Without a bridge, King's Cross turns its back on our community. With the bridge our community remains properly joined to sister communities in Somers Town and the south side of King's Cross making our area a better place to live and work. It is infrastructure like this, said Paul, that gives communities self respect and fosters healthy, cohesive communities where anti-social behaviour and youth crime can decrease dramatically.
Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the Liberal Democrats, Bridget Fox (Islington South and Finsbury) and Jo Shaw (Holborn and St Pancras) made excellent contributions from the floor. Caroline Pidgeon, Greater London Assembly Member and LibDem spokesperson on Transport at the GLA sent a message of support as did Councillor Marisha Ray of Clerkenwell ward.
Jenny Jones, Greater London Assembly Member, leader of the Green Group on the GLA, Deputy Chair of the GLA's Planning and Spatial Development Committee and member of the GLA's Transport Committee, sent her apologies to us. Sadly she was involved in a bicycle accident at the weekend and is suffering from a very painful broken wrist. Jenny submitted a written question about the Mayor's stance on the bridge for Mayor's Question Time yesterday, she will get a response next week - watch this space.
Also attending was Duncan Webster, chair of the Islington Conservative Association. Duncan is hugely supportive of the campaign and is working to alert key party colleagues to the need for a bridge.
Messages of strong support were also received from Alex Goodman (Green Party Councillor in Camden) and from Sian Berry (national spokesperson for the Green Party and recently their mayoral candidate). Both had other meetings that evening which prevented them from coming but they are supporting the campaign.
A detailed exhibition, very kindly reproduced and laminated for us with no charge by Gratte Brothers, was viewed by those present - I hope to upload more graphics from the exhibition soon.
Questions and comments from the floor were well-informed as well as very practical, giving us all food for thought about the next steps. Two people present last night have today become members of the email-based organising group for the campaign. Ideas are flowing, again I'll report more soon. Meanwhile, a new category on this site will appear in the next day or so. Titled, 'Resources' it will contain a host of information, graphics, templates for letters, addresses to write to and lots more. Please do keep in touch and remember - get all your friends, family and colleagues to sign the petition - we are up to 429 signatures as I write - can we hit 500 before the weekend?
A detailed report of the meeting will be published in the next few weeks... If you were not at the meeting and would like to make a comment or ask a question for the report, do email us. The deadline for all submissions is 27 July.
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