On your bike: Boris Johnson wants to spend more on an urban motorway in Croydon than he is spending on cycle schemes across London this year
Mayor of London Boris Johnson wants to spend more on building a four-/five-/six-lane flyover through a Waddon park than his entire annual spend on cycling in the city for 2014-2015.
That’s the conclusion of Darren Johnson, the Green Party Assembly Member, based on official figures he has obtained which show that the supposedly “bike-friendly” London Mayor is spending £82million on cycling in the city this year.
The controversial Boris Flyover scheme, for the A232 from the Purley Way towards central London, could cost at least £87million.
In 2003, the entire borough of Croydon was designated an Air Quality Management Area due to serious concerns about air pollution in the borough. Emissions from vehicles are one biggest contributors to Croydon’s polluted air.
Yet now, with enthusiastic support from cabinet member Kathy Bee, Croydon’s Labour-run council is backing the Tory Mayor’s scheme to build another urban motorway through a residential area, ostensibly to allow Surrey shoppers to drive their 4x4s more easily into the £1 billion Hammersfield supermall in the town centre.
The A232 route into Croydon runs very close to St Andrew’s High School and the Parish Church infants and primary schools, but at the recent Transport for London consultation had no data on environmental assessment for the proposals, something which Darren Johnson has been strongly critical in his formal submission to the Transport for London “consultation”, which was recently concluded.
Kathy Bee: enthusiastically supported the flyover through Waddon
“It is outrageous that the Mayor is considering concreting over another bit of Croydon to encourage more and more vehicles to flood in on new roads and condemn the people of Croydon to even filthier air,” Darren Johnson said.
“Croydon has such great potential but constructing a huge flyover linking Duppas Hill Road with the A232 as suggested in the plans is the last thing the town needs. It will be a huge eyesore hated by the people who will have to live in its shadow.
“The fact that the Mayor wants to spend more on this single construction scheme than this year’s entire cycling budget for London shows how backwards his thinking is. Outer London town centres like Croydon need safe, segregated cycle lanes, a better public realm for pedestrians, comprehensive public transport links and green spaces for people to enjoy.
“This scheme offers none of these and I have urged the Mayor to ditch these plans immediately.”
- Read Darren Johnson AM’s formal objections to the TfL Fiveways consultation here: FivewaysTFLLetter13March
- Boris Flyover ‘90% certain’ to go ahead according to TfL
- Boris Flyover could see Waddon pollution levels match Eton
- Mayor’s new road scheme “will leave motorists worse off”
- Flawed Purley Way scheme “intended to deceive”, says expert
- MP Barwell backs road scheme which could bulldoze Waddon park
- Inside Croydon Events: for dates and links to what’s happening in and around Croydon, updated daily, click here
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I really don’t know why we bother. The new highway into Croydon is going to be built despite all the objections and the damage will do to the people nearby, the people who live in its way, the amenities and the quality of life of anyone nearby. Hammersfield is going to be built despite all the harm its construction will to to the town and the cost in human and financial terms. This is simply because the vested interests involved, financial, political and Conservative, are so entrenched and powerful as to be invincible. Democracy has ceased to have any effect as a way of influencing decisions, at least in Croydon.
Croydon is no longer seen as a town in which people live but as a form of business opportunity and all our politicians and administrators believe this to be how things should be. Oh, woe. I’m off to chain myself to some railings in Waddon Park. Anyone want to join me?
Is this to help the HGV’s reach the new recycling plant in Beddington ???
In the main, this is a public subsidy for a road scheme for Hammersfield.
But it will take traffic off a short stretch of the A23, which will doubtless be used by many HGVs from around southern England, delivering other people’s crap to Beddington for burning.
Genius.
As you mention bike-friendly and Croydon in (almost) the same breath I wonder if anyone can tell me if Croydon is the only London borough ripping up cycle lanes? If I were a suspicious person I might think South End and London Road both leading directly to the new HammersfieldWhitgift shopping thingy I’ve heard rumours about and the fact you can’t carry much shopping on a bike as being linked