Back in the days when Conservatives liked to open rather than axe big transport schemes, Desmond Plummer’s name was cast in stone.
The date was August 2, 1967, and Mr Plummer — later Sir Desmond and ultimately Lord Plummer — had the honour, as the Tory leader of the Greater London Council, of opening the second Blackwall tunnel.
His name is still there today, above the entrance to the southbound tunnel, visible to all drivers as they sit stranded in the never-ending queues.
In around two years’ time, another road crossing under the Thames is due to open: the nearby Silvertown tunnel.
Yet the chances of Mayor Sadiq Khan wanting his name embossed in concrete — or even performing the opening ceremony — are even smaller than that of HS2 ever making it to Euston.
Not because Mr Khan’s re-election next May, while not unlikely, is no longer a foregone conclusion.
But rather because the row over his decision to press ahead with Silvertown has morphed into a far greater problem.
Drivers are increasingly starting to realise that, when Silvertown opens in 2025, they will have to pay to use Blackwall tunnel.
The scale of hostility to the mayor is already reaching alarming levels
The toll — likely to be about £4 per journey, though potentially as much as £5.25 once inflation is added — is needed to repay the £2bn in PFI costs of building and operating Silvertown over the next 25 years. (Tolls will also be imposed on Silvertown to deter motorists from diverting from one to the other.)
In his book Breathe, Mr Khan dismissed the anti-Silvertown brigade as a “vocal minority” of social media eco warriors, saying the tunnel was never raised by voters on the doorstep.
Londoners opposed to the Greater London Ulez expansion may also be a vocal minority, but they are very vocal and a potentially significant minority — especially at a time when Mr Khan is only narrowly ahead in the polls.
Ken Livingstone, as keen to curb car use as Mr Khan, sensed the dangers of tolling Blackwall. “Read my lips — no tolls at Blackwall tunnel,” he once said.
Could Blackwall be Mr Khan’s new Ulez expansion? Neither policy was meant as a “war on the motorist” but part of a noble cause to clean up the capital’s toxic air.
Yet both have elevated the scale of hostility to the mayor to alarming levels, and not just in relation to his personal safety, but politically too. By imposing a toll on Blackwall, it may be Mr Khan who pays the heaviest price.
