Perry and Bains claiming credit for TfL’s Addiscombe crossings

insidecroydon

4 months ago

KEN LEE reports on how the same local politicians who have opposed 20mph zones, cycle lanes and other road safety measures in the borough are now scrambling to take credit for TfL spending ahead of next May’s local elections

Crossing improvements: after four years of doing nothing much, Croydon’s Tory council is claiming credit for road improvements in Addiscombe

The roads in Addiscombe are to get two new zebra crossings and traffic-calming measures on one busy junction, all just in time for next May’s local elections.

What impeccable timing for Mayor Jason Perry’s Tory-run council, where the rise and rise of Reform Ltd threatens to see at least one of Perry’s £40,000 per year cabinet members lose their seat at the Town Hall*.

After four pedestrian years in charge of the council, failed Mayor Perry, the man who promised to “fix the finances” but instead put up Council Tax by 33%, is pulling out all the stops to try to salvage something, anything, as he he seeks re-election on May 7 while confronted by the twin realities of racist Nigel Farage’s stormtroopers and his own crass incompetence.

Addiscombe East is a two-seat ward which, since 2018, has been split between Labour and the Conservatives.

Jeet Bains, a management consultant by profession who has in the past harboured ambitions of becoming an MP, is part of Perry’s lacklustre and lackadaisical “top team”. Bains holds the cabinet portfolio for planning and regeneration, areas of council business which have, mostly, seen Croydon regress since 2022.

Much like the works proposed for Minster Green in Old Town, where plans first agreed in around 2018 have been belatedly dusted off in an effort to claim some kind of success in 2026, the schemes proposed for Lower Addiscombe Road and Bingham Road are nothing new.

Four wasted years: remember when Jeet Bains (right, here with colleague Simon Brew in 2021) and Mayor Perry promised to reopen Purley Pool?

Issues with pedestrian safety along the A232 have been known and understood for several years.

Even Bains himself has written of “long-standing concerns”. It’s just that it has taken Perry, Bains and council officials a very long time to do anything about it.

Money has, of course, been in short supply since covid and the council’s financial collapse, though there have been millions of pounds in ring-fenced pots of cash available for some projects, whether through levies on developers or as government or GLA grants.

Indeed, in the case of the Addiscombe crossings, this is really a Transport for London project (it’s their money, from their Local Implementation Plan), rather than anything much to do with the council, and even less to do with piss-poor Perry or his mate Bains. The A232, which runs from central Croydon towards Shirley, is, after all, part of the Transport for London Road Network.

But it should come as no surprise for part-time Perry and his mates to try to claim the credit for other people’s money, and work.

Subject to a final consultation which concluded this week (three-quarters of residents have previously backed the proposals), work is expected to get underway in January on:

New zebra crossing at Lower Addiscombe Road’s junction with Bingham Road;
New zebra crossing opposite St Mildred’s Church on Bingham Road; and
Raised junction treatment at Bingham Road and Shirley Road

The crossing at Lower Addiscombe Road will see the removal of two parking bays to improve visibility and safety.

“These locations were prioritised due to long-standing concerns about pedestrian safety along Bingham Road,” Bains wrote, as he show-boated on social media to a local residents’ association in the hope of reminding their members to vote for him again.

If all goes to plan, the new crossings should be in place by March. Just in time for piss-poor Perry and Bains to show up with a council photographer to claim all the credit in the final weeks before the local elections.

*FOOTNOTE: For clarity, Inside Croydon is not, at this stage anyway, predicting that Reform Ltd will win a council seat in Addiscombe East in 2026. But Croydon Tory sources have expressed concern that the Faragists could take enough votes away from Jeet Bains that Labour might claim both of the ward’s council seats next May.

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