Borough High Street Tuesday night

Any body know what happened round there last night. It was shut from 5ish and still shut when i went home at 10.30. Buses were all diverted along Tooley Street aswel.

There was a diesel spillage: http://twitpic.com/7k2gv

Large spill from an unmarked lorry late afternoon! I live on the Borough High Street (top end) and what I witness over the period of that evening was quite worrying. Wednesday through to 8am Thursday morning the entire street was shut and all the buildings were jet washed through the night by blokes in what looked Bio suits then they re-surfaced the entire road and repainted before the rush hour the next morning! What ever they spilt was clearly very dodge and the cover and clean up was 'no expense spared'. No explanation was offered by any of the police I asked and I was politely told to mind my own business.

Oliver Watson wrote:

What ever they spilt was clearly very dodge

If the spill was dangerous, the clean up gangs and police were making little apparent effort to stop pedestrians and cyclists crossing or going up and down the High Street during the late afternoon. A lot of people completely ignored the police tape, with the result that there were a lot of 'oily' foot prints and tyre marks decorating the pavements (yes I know, cyclist on pavements again). The only attempt to keep people away from the road that I saw was a clean up operative yelling at some people who ducked under the tape.

When I walked home at 5:30 across Borough Hi Street into Southwark Street the pavements weren't taped off, just the road, and the policeman I spoke to, to ask what had happened, said "the road is closed to traffic due to a diesel spill" - so I guess the closure was for traffic only.

I have only just spotted this thread.

I was feeling extremely ill last week, around this time and live off there. I didn't notice the road shut off, but then I had my nose in a book whilst walking (doh).

even if it was 'only diesel', the chemicals used to clean it up would not be very pleasant.

these people are idiots, not to use chemicals that are safe for pets and people and environment. bet it boiled down to cheap options chosen.

janefs wrote:

...with the result that there were a lot of 'oily' foot prints and tyre marks decorating the pavements (yes I know, cyclist on pavements again.

...perhaps the tyre tracks were from cyclists pushing their bikes along the pavement like I did??? I was warned by a policeman to be careful as diesel can be really slippery and I have skinny slick tyres. Oddly enough, I also don't want diesel all over my £1500 bike so I pushed it along the pavement! Sorry for the rant but I'm a bit tired of the anti-cyclist views that keep cropping up on the forum. Not all cyclists are considerate, but neither are all pedestrians!

Gwynaethva wrote:

janefs wrote:

...with the result that there were a lot of 'oily' foot prints and tyre marks decorating the pavements (yes I know, cyclist on pavements again.

...perhaps the tyre tracks were from cyclists pushing their bikes along the pavement like I did??? I was warned by a policeman to be careful as diesel can be really slippery and I have skinny slick tyres. Oddly enough, I also don't want diesel all over my £1500 bike so I pushed it along the pavement! Sorry for the rant but I'm a bit tired of the anti-cyclist views that keep cropping up on the forum. Not all cyclists are considerate, but neither are all pedestrians!

Are you sure you don't mean "I also didn't want to ride my bike down a road that the police had blocked off to traffic, so I pushed it down the pavement"?

Gwynaethva wrote:

janefs wrote:

...with the result that there were a lot of 'oily' foot prints and tyre marks decorating the pavements (yes I know, cyclist on pavements again.

...perhaps the tyre tracks were from cyclists pushing their bikes along the pavement like I did??? I was warned by a policeman to be careful as diesel can be really slippery and I have skinny slick tyres. Oddly enough, I also don't want diesel all over my £1500 bike so I pushed it along the pavement! Sorry for the rant but I'm a bit tired of the anti-cyclist views that keep cropping up on the forum. Not all cyclists are considerate, but neither are all pedestrians!

Gwynaethva,

My comments were aimed at everyone who spread that stuff around, and there was no intention to diss cyclists in particular. It was, in fact, more of an expression of being tired of all the 'rants' against cyclists - and without adequate means of adding expression to the typed words I can see how it came across in the way you interpreted it. Let's just say: that evening there were a lot of people travelling up, down and across BHS who took absolutely no notice of the warnings.

Ivanhoe wrote:

Are you sure you don't mean "I also didn't want to ride my bike down a road that the police had blocked off to traffic, so I pushed it down the pavement"?

Actually, I was advised to push my bike along the pavement by a member of the police! In addition to this, I (a.) didn't really want to fall off and (b.) didn't want to get my bike covered in diesel

Not that I want to be controversial, but surely cyclists have as much of a right to push their bicycles along the pavement as people pushing prams do? Afterall they both have wheels and get in the way... ;oP