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Roadwork rubbish around Whitehall is cleaned up amid fear of G20 rioting
Peter Dominiczak27.03.09
THE rubble-strewn streets around Whitehall have embarrassed the Government into ordering an emergency clean-up of roadworks ahead of the G20 summit.
With world leaders arriving next Wednesday, authorities realised at the last minute that construction works were blighting the image of the city.
The clean-up comes as London braces itself for days of protests, beginning tomorrow with a Put People First march through the capital to a mass rally in Hyde Park.
On Wednesday G20 protesters will converge on the Bank of England on what is being dubbed Financial Fools Day. On Thursday activists will target the G20 summit itself, held at the ExCel conference centre in east London.
There are fears that discarded lumps of concrete, bricks, wooden stakes and scaffolding poles at construction sites could be used as weapons by some demonstrators intent on violence.
Whitehall and Parliament Square were this morning strewn with rubble from the major works which run between the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square. New paving stones are being laid down in Whitehall for a 100-yard stretch outside Downing Street, while water pipes are being replaced in Whitehall and Parliament Square.
Government sources have told the Evening Standard that officials at the Cabinet Office and Department for Transport issued an order to clear up and close the works late yesterday.
The sites will now have a major clean-up in the next 24 hours to make them more secure - and spare embarrassment, with world leaders such as Barack Obama due on Wednesday.
The route of tomorrow's march, organised by the TUC and 120 other organisations, goes past the road and pavement works.
Wetsminster Council said today: "We have instructed all our contractors to be ready to secure all sites and clear them where necessary. As an additional precaution in the Whitehall area we will be stopping all street works for the duration of the summit and the area will be cleared and made safe."
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling criticised the Government's hand-ling of the security preparations. He said: "There is definitely a fear that there will be significant protests across London next week. It is to the discredit of the Labour Government that preparations are happening so late."
Deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes said: "It is foolish to leave potential weapons around protesters, particularly at a time when concerns are at their highest because of the G20."
In Whitehall today, commuters were unimpressed by the state of the roads and pavements.
Civil servant Margaret Philips, 57, from Twickenham said: "You'd think that with the President coming they'd have made this spick-and-span. It certainly looks a mess at the moment and I can't imagine that they will have it ready in time for Mr Obama."
Graffiti removal teams with Westminster City Council have been placed on high alert in case any racist graffiti referring to Mr Obama is daubed on walls where he is likely to pass.
Thames Water's £650million scheme to replace Victorian mains pipes has caused traffic chaos and is due to continue until 2010. A sign in Whitehall suggests the construction works there should be completed by 26 June.
Reader views (9)
The streets around Whitehall are an absolute disgrace. It is hard to believe that the government and Westminster Council have allowed this chaos to continue for so long. Even when the worlds media will congregate in London for the G20 they don't act - if not now then when? This is symptomatic of the shambles that Thames Water and other utilities are free to create. It reduces London's streets to near dumps. There is no pride in the city shown by the government, how do they then expect others to respect it. It is tantamout to corporate vandalism.
What a contrast to the roads around Regents Park where Barack Obama will be staying - road blocks galore - turning public streets into fortresses - denying access to the taxpaying citizen - but not a roadwork in site.
Shouldn't the government think about putting British pride in their capital city first and sorting out the dump that has been created outside Westminster and Downing Steet?
- Peggy Riggles, Hitchin UK
If the G20 meeting means that London Streets for once do not resemble the Blitz then there is one good thing to come out of it . We then need to find a way to come up with a cheaper solution than the disgraceful £19 million ( actual figure £23m) spent on employing private security firms of thugs and crimo's and triple time overtime for Policeman while they sit in white vans eating Ginsters Pasties !!!!!!! policing Gordon Brown's ego trip ...... And good old Boris's comment is .............silence ....funny that .
- Ad, London
This country does not like order. If it did, it would put more effort into clearing one job before starting another.
In other words, to quote a now quite famous television personality who likes to hire apprentices: "It is an utter mess!"
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Mildenhall, Suffolk.
The streets in the city are a shambles. Who dreamt up the farce of having this G20 meeting in Excel in the east of London? All the delagates will probably be staying in the west of London and thus having to be bussed through Upper and Lower Thames streets both of which are like bomb sites. The chaos will be mind blowing. They should have held it in Swindon!
- David, london
So basically they couldn't see the mess they're in?!
- Roz, Chamonix, France
The photograpgh and the caption speaks more eloquently of the urgency to cover up the expedite the work to cover the huge crater-like formation in the Parliament Square. Besides presenting an ugly sight, as the write-up pointed out, the strewn material like concrete lumps, wooden stakes etc may prove handy to protesters planning to take out out a march to violent activities.
- Pisipati Sriram, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Guess Brown will say that this is a Global problem which no-one saw coming, besides its all America's fault and the Government is doing everything it can to help hard working families back onto the pavements and off the roads.
- gazza, London,England
Thames Water roadworks, and their contractors, have probably caused more disruption to London than the IRA and Al Quaida together.
I takes a visit from the US President to get a small part of them cleaned up.
- Keith T., Upminster Essex
Why are they holding the G20 at Excel while it is undergoing major reconstruction work. Utter madness.
Malc
- Malc, London,England
