London Banter - Canal to be used to transport depot deliveries

From Watford Observer

PLANS for a new tube depot in Croxley Green have been amended after local
residents raised their concerns with deliveries now to be transported by canal

instead of road.
Representatives from Metronet, which is working with London Underground
Limited (LUL), held a two-day public exhibition at Croxley Green library last
week about the proposal.
Over the next 15 years, Metronet will replace and upgrade 260km of track.
But existing track renewal facilities cannot cope with the level of work to
be carried out so an application for a depot at Croxley has been submitted to
Three Rivers District Council.
Extensive investigation was carried out at a number of sites and Croxley was
found to be the most suitable site using disused railway land to the south of
Croxley Green and the north west of the Grand Union Canal.
But at a meeting in March, attended by more than 100 people, residents raised
concerns about an increase in lorry traffic during the four-month
construction period.
In response to these concerns the material for the depot will now be
transported via the adjacent Grand Union Canal removing 600 potential lorry
movements off the local road network.
Track programme manager, Anthony Newell-Hart, said: "It is an excellent way
of transporting materials and will be a regeneration of the old and the new."
Use of the canal is also beneficial to British Waterways as it prevents it
from silting up.
Anyone wishing to see the applicaton can get it from Croxley Green Library or
Three Rivers District Council.
If plans go ahead, work on constructing the depot will begin in September.

John Burke
WRUG