Businesses and residents on Southbridge Road in South Croydon are having to deal with the disruption and inconvenience of having their road closed off at one end, for at least three weeks.
The road works are part of the multi-million-pound “improvements” going on along South End, and are being managed by a council-run body that has been titled “Connected Croydon”.
Despite being months in the planning, news of the closure of the road – which is an important through-route for ambulances and fire engines on emergency calls and runs alongside the High Street to the Croydon Flyover – was communicated to locals in a leaflet distributed by “Connected Croydon” on the Friday afternoon before the diggers moved in. The “Connected Croydon” leaflet suggests that road users needing to access Southbridge Road from the High Street should take a diversion of more than a mile.
“Connected Croydon” is the same body which, as part of the project, is responsible for selecting the kindergarten-style bike racks that have been put up in South End, to widespread contempt and derision among cyclists and pedestrians.
Inside Croydon wanted to talk to someone at “Connected Croydon” about the bike racks, the road closures and the “improvements”. So we went to their publicly funded website.
This is what we found on their “Contact” page:
A bit of a dis-connect?
The road works are due to be completed by July 11. We shall see.
Coming to Croydon
- Crystal Palace Overground Festival, June 26-29
- David Lean Cinema: The Lunchbox, June 26
- Warnings to the Curious, Spread Eagle Theatre, June 27
- Metamono Secrets of Nature, Upper Norwood, June 27
- Park Hill Park meet the police session, June 27
- St Peter’s Village Fayre, South Croydon, June 28
- South Norwood Allotments open day, June 28
- Croydon Careers Fair, North End, June 30
- Fragile, Spread Eagle Theatre, July 24-26
- Coast to Capital business briefing, July 4
- Basically Johnny Moped at Stanley Tech, July 8
- CODA’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at Wandle Park, Jul 30-Aug 2
- Elm Tree Cottage garden open day, Aug 10
- Norwood Society Talk: War Memorials, Sep 18
- Norwood Society Talk: From Fire Station to Theatre, Oct 16
- Norwood Society Talk: Lambeth’s Archives, Nov 20
Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 72,342 average monthly page views (Jan-Mar 2014)
If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
These people are spending public money. Their names should be publicly known in order that they are publicly accountable. A list on the council website would be fine, providing it is finally working properly.
I would add that having driven down South End many times during these works I have been staggered as to how often there has been no one working.
And all for what….a slightly wider path. Utterly pointless.
It’s similar to the (slow) replacement of the streetlights: put up barriers, dig up the road and then do nothing.
3 things
1 i didnt even know what the works were until i was in afters and saw a flyer , something about a big sign that says ” southend” and outdoor eating
2 its nice to see that at the coombe cross roads they dug up tarmaced and then dug up again
3 so many tiles are already splitting or just uneven not a few but most from aberdeen road are somewhat unfinished, some by zizi are even cracking .