Kenley’s Conservative councillors, Gayle Gander and Ola Kolade, have admitted that they didn’t know that their residents were to be by-passed by Transport for London’s changes to Croydon’s bus routes – until they found out about it on Inside Croydon.
Off the buses: ward councillors did not know the 434 was not going to upper Kenley until iC reported it
Between the two of them, Gander and Kolade receive more than £50,000 in allowances from Croydon Council for trying to look after the interests of the people of Kenley.
All that cash clearly hasn’t been enough for them to keep on the case with TfL over the 434 to serve the upper part of Kenley and the valley road and Beverly Road, before going on to Caterham.
Inside Croydon reported last week on a late change of heart from TfL, which from this weekend will extend the 434 to Caterham but by going directly along the Godstone Road not serving the upper part of Kenley – despite the councillors having already trying to claim credit for the change.
In a statement released on social media, Tory councillors Gander and Kolade (notorious for having been accused by three bishops and other church leaders of deliberately misleading voters – or as most people call it: lying) admitted that they had… well… missed the bus over the 434.
“We had fully expected to see included the new bus route which was due to serve the top of Kenley, via Higher Drive, Cullesden Road, Firs Road, Wattendon Road and back down the hill via park road,” Gander and Kolade wrote.
They said that they “were deeply disappointed that it had seemingly been sidelined”. As, indeed, had they…
This will have to do: how the 434 route will look from the Saturday
The Tory councillors cannot stop themselves: they still tried to turn their failure to keep a check on this consulted route change into an opportunity to electioneer on behalf of their party colleagues standing in May’s London elections.
Not that the 434 oversight reflects particularly well on Neil “Father Jack” Garratt, the London Assembly Member who had also failed to note that TfL was taking longer to sort out this route than others and also failed to engage with the local public transport committee. Otherwise, he might have known about the issues with the 434’s new route.
The delay in implementing the “as consulted on” 434 route is due to “line of sight issues”, according to TfL, “which are being addressed”. Locals suggest that long-standing road works are in the way.
In common with a couple of other bus routes in the south of the borough, TfL is dependent on some road changes that need to be undertaken by… Croydon Council.
The council is, of course, under the executive control of another Croydon Tory, Jason Perry.
TfL say that they are working to implement the full, new 434 route to improve connectivity at the top of Kenley.
The TfL website is also being updated to reflect that “this is a temporary arrangement until the full change can be implemented”.
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