Sunday 13 March 2011

£31m versus £150k

£31,000,000 has been pledged to the proposed Battersea Northern Line tube extension by the company planning on developing 752 new homes, including 99 affordable ones on the Tideway Industrial Estate, in the Nine Elms corridor.

That's £41,000 per home!

In contrast they've pledged a paltry £200 a home to a community bike hire scheme.

Alongside this funding to transport their S106 agreement will include £2m towards the creation of family sized affordable housing units in the area.

But where will the money come from to pay for the schools, nurseries, libraries, leisure centres etc. for the thousands of new residents?

I've no idea, but it occurs to me that there could be more for these essential services if more was put into cycling and buses, and none poured into a hole in the ground. After all, it takes only a few minutes to cycle from Tideway to Vauxhall and about 20 minutes to cycle to the City of London.

Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea - the new Amsterdam?