At Thames Gateway

A tribute from contemporary Estuary England to  S T Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan”, as submitted to the Thames Gateway Bridge Public Inquiry by Janet in 2005

At Thames Gateway did Rogers Khan*
A stately pleasure-dome decree,
Where Tamesis, sacred river, ran
Through transport corridor of man,
Down to Southend-on-Sea.

Then Government did command
A conference in London’s Dockland,
And midst this Rogers heard from far
Across the river voices prophesising war !
A montage of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves….
Government had failed to measure
Environmental impacts on the weather !

A planner and developer
In a vision once I saw,
With a traffic engineer,
And on his model he displayed
Complex forecasts overlaid.
What future held these three
For the Gateway Bridge Inquiry ?
At which junction, I awoke
And replied : The SEA, The SEA**

*Lord Rogers of Riverside  **Strategic Environmental Assessment