Public reacts with contempt and derision at more empty promises from Croydon’s Mayor over a project which has now cost £37m but still has no completion date agreed
Bridge to Nowhere: Mayor Perry still can’t provide a completion date
Residents who have been kept waiting for nearly 12 years for the promised pedestrian link from Addiscombe to Croydon town centre by the Bridge to Nowhere at East Croydon Station have described Mayor Jason Perry’s latest public intervention in the matter as “pathetic”.
Inside Croydon reported last month how, although the link to Cherry Orchard Road was at last ready to be opened after a decade of delay by private developers Menta, Network Rail now has no budget for ticket machines at the long-promised entrance to the station, and maintenance work on the bridge could take until 2025 before it is safe to open.
A well-attended meeting of residents held last month, attended by Menta and Network Rail, was told that no party has yet to take financial and legal liability for the belated opening of the bridge’s Addiscombe entrance.
The bridge cost £22million to build in 2013, with Croydon Council contributing £6million.
No one at the council at the time managed to include in the planning conditions for Menta’s residential blocks any deadline for delivering the entrance link and access for the bridge – thought to be one of the reasons the developers were able to take their time over delivering their promised public infrastructure.
The council’s cabinet member responsible for planning and development back in 2013 was… Tory councillor Jason Perry.
Powerless: Croydon Mayor Jason Perry
Now the £82,000 per year Mayor of Croydon, piss-poor Perry has taken almost six weeks to chip-in with his take on the latest delays in delivering a properly functioning bridge and station access point to say… well, nothing much at all, really.
The council issued a statement on the situation last night, claiming that Croydon, Menta and Network Rail “have restated their commitment to collaborating”, to ensure the bridge – built at huge public expense in 2013 remember, “is opened to the public as quickly as possible”.
The council said: “A new planning consent and agreement was put in place in 2019, which has now been built. As part of this Menta has committed £15million to deliver the link piece to connect the new step and lift access to the existing bridge, together with significant new public realm for the wider Addiscombe community, all of which has now been completed.”
That suggests that the Bridge to Nowhere has now cost a total of £37million, but still fails to deliver on the basic function of a bridge – to provide access from one side of the tracks to the other.
According to the council, “A timetable of how and when the bridge will be completed is being developed.” Which is nice. Though it does make you wonder why such a timetable was not in place in 2013…
“These discussions include the need to complete outstanding repair works to the pedestrian through route side of the bridge, the completion of the connecting works to the Menta link piece and public realm and introducing the necessary CCTV, lighting and monitoring arrangements to ensure the bridge offers safe passage for residents.”
Left hanging: 11 years after the ‘grand’ opening of the bridge at Caithness Walk, the eastern end is still inaccessible
Croydon’s impotent Mayor blames “complications” for the delay in Menta completing its link. “The vital pedestrian route connecting east to west needs to be open as soon as possible,” said Perry, who has been in office as Mayor for nearly three years. “I am determined to get the job done,” Perry said, as if he could actually get anything done.
Jerry Fitzpatrick, a former Labour councillor for the ward affected by the lack of access to the bridge, Addiscombe West, said: “Perry was cabinet member responsible in 2010 and proudly announced the project. Given the lapse of 14 years since the project was unveiled, the community will want to see deeds not words.
“They are entitled to treat words with great scepticism.
“There should have been a detailed Section 106 agreement between Menta and the council when the revised 2011 planning application was granted.
“Unfortunately, the meaning of commitment has been weakened to vague promise, and ‘as quickly as possible’ to a time-frame between 18 months, at best, and at worst, never.”
Public responses to Mayor Perry’s pronouncement were a mix of contempt and derision.
“So the Bridge to Nowhere is going somewhere, sometime as yet unspecified, after a decade’s wait,” wrote one resident.
“Ten years after they opened the other side and a major announcement: We’re talking to others about it. Pathetic,” was the view of another.
And another wrote on social media: “A shambles all round.”
“This tells us nothing,” one resident observed. “‘As soon as possible’ means nothing.”
Someone presumably with long experience of the failings of Croydon Council, and Perry, when it comes to getting developers to deliver on promises, said: “Yeah.. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Read more: No one can afford ticket machines for the Bridge to Nowhere
Read more: Developers must finish station bridge, residents demand
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