The newest addition to London's collection of Overground stations is being formally opened even as I hit my "launch" button. Londonist wrote about it yesterday, remarking in passing:
If past form is any guide, Boris will don a hard-hat and suggest he built the whole thing himself
Can't comment on that last bit, but Mayor Johnson is indeed starring at today's unveiling of Imperial Wharf station, whose rich pre-history has been documented by Diamond Geezer. Among the supporting cast is his close ally Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of Hammersmith and Fulham and council tax-cutting darling of the Tory grass roots.
The new station lies in Greenhalgh's borough and serves the Imperial Wharf development, which is regarded by Fulham MP Greg Hands, Greenhalgh's fellow Tory and pal since their Cambridge days, as exemplifying the wrong sort of housing project for fostering social mobility and tackling concentrations of deprivation. At least, that's what Hands told Iain Dale on 18 Doughty street TV in February 2007 - find the show archived here - when he and Greenhalgh made a joint appearance. Greenhalgh appeared to agree.
Not sure if the H&F leader will confirm his dislike of the Chelsea riverside neighbourhood this morning, but I can say with confidence that his radical alternative housing programme will be receiving close attention at the Labour conference in the next few hours. Both communities secretary John Denham and housing minister John Healey will be making unflattering references to his Decent Neighbourhoods programme - or "bulldozer policy" - as his local Labour critics call it - from the main conference stage at Brighton. A fiver says Boris will get a bashing too.
