Bridge to Nowhere: 14 years after its installation and three years after the Cherry Orchard Road link was finally completed, the bridge is still not open at both ends
Fifteen years since he was the cabinet member responsible for the botched legal agreement with developers that allowed Menta to deny public bodies necessary access to complete the £22million pedestrian bridge at East Croydon, and Jason Perry, now the Mayor of Croydon, is trying to claim the credit for finally getting it finished.
Blob the builder: Jason Perry was the cabinet member in charge in 2011 when the flawed deal with Menta was agreed
Except the Bridge to Nowhere remains just that, still without the long-promised access from the Cherry Orchard Road, eastern end, and now even by Perry’s council’s best guess, unlikely to be open for at least another five months, in 2027.
Works on the bridge, and its eastern access point, were completed in 2023, when developers Menta finished their Blossoms housing developments alongside the London-to-Brighton railway tracks.
Menta have had this £22million-worth of public infrastructure literally on the doorsteps of the residents of their tower blocks since 2012.
Yet no agreement was reached to open up access from the eastern side of the tracks, for Menta’s residents or anyone else in Addiscombe.
In 2024, Perry had promised that the Bridge to Nowhere would open in 2025. “There is a clear pathway to delivery,” Perry lied two years ago.
In 2025, piss-poor Perry was saying that it would open in 2026…
Today, it will be in 2027.
A council press release was issued yesterday, just before Mayor Perry and representatives from Network Rail were due to face questions at the annual meeting of the East Croydon Community Organisation – ECCO – which has been lobbying for proper access at the eastern side of the bridge for the past 15 years.
Perry, as the instigator of this epic-length farce caused by his and the council’s incompetence, is now taking gaslighting of the public to levels only Trump or the FIFA crook Infantino can aspire to.
Because what is missing from this latest self-regarding Perry propaganda press release is the shocking reality of the Mayor’s latest bodge job.
Anyone wanting to take a train from East Croydon Station using the bridge from Cherry Orchard Road faces a 200-metre trek, all the way to the western end of the bridge, to tap-in with their payment card or ticket, then potentially all the way back to Platforms 5 and 6. That includes wheelchair users and parents with pushchairs or buggies.
“It’ll be chaos in the rush hour, when the bridge is busy with commuters trying to get their trains,” one member of ECCO said.
“You won’t want to be in a hurry to get a particular service. It might be almost as quick to just go to the station’s main entrance, as we’ve all been forced to do since the bridge was installed in 2012.”
It had always been intended that passengers using the eastern entrance to the bridge would be able to use a ticket barrier, just like those entering the station from the western, Ruskin Square side. But Network Rail and the operators of Southern and Thameslink services now claim to be too skint to be able to afford a couple of ticket barriers, or to staff them.
Mayor Perry has allowed them to push ahead with their alternative, of forcing passengers entering the bridge at the eastern end to go all the way across to the opposite side to get their tickets punched.
What is also not mentioned in piss-poor Perry’s press release, but was also admitted at the ECCO meeting, is that he’s signed up Croydon Council to pay for the “soft maintenance” of the bridge.
Network Rail say that they will undertake – and pay for – the resurfacing of the bridge’s walkways before the eastern end is opened. After all, they’ve had 14 years of wear and tear since the Bridge to Nowhere was partly opened and probably need an overhaul.
But according to the presentations to ECCO, it will be Croydon Council that will look after what they described as “soft maintenance” of the bridge – in a deal which is thought to be unprecedented, for a local authority to take financial responsibility for Network Rail infrastructure.
There in black and white (and green): a diagram from Network Rail’s planning application in October 2024, showing the trek facing passengers from Addiscombe with no ticket gateline on the eastern side of the Bridge to Nowhere. And no one at Croydon Council has told them that this is both unacceptable, and stupid
It remains to be explained where Perry will find this revenue expenditure in the cash-strapped council’s budgets.
It was Perry in around 2011 who sanctioned the council’s original, £6million contribution to the capital cost of building a bridge that could only be accessed at one end.
Today, Croydon Council says it has reached “a funding agreement with Network Rail” and Menta to finally finish the job. “Network Rail’s contractor is expected to begin work this summer,” the council says, with no admission to the near-15 years of blundering that has preceded such works.
There was a hint that this has all been allowed to drag on from Lucy McAuliffe, from Network Rail, who called the agreement a “milestone”. “We look forward to bringing these long‑awaited benefits into use for Croydon residents,” she said.
“Reaching this point has taken longer than we would have liked, and we appreciate the continued patience of residents and passengers throughout. I’m really pleased that collectively, we are now able to proceed into the delivery phase ahead of completion in 2027.”
For Perry, it is “another positive step in the regeneration of our town centre”. Or 200 positive steps, if you’re one of the unfortunate Addiscombe residents forced to traverse the bridge twice just to get on to a platform.
“The council supports a fully accessible station entrance on both sides and is continuing to work with its partners on behalf of residents and businesses,” Perry said.
Read more: No one can afford ticket machines for the Bridge to Nowhere
Read more: Network Rail can’t afford staff for Bridge to Nowhere ticketing
Read more: After 12-year delay, Perry pipes up on the Bridge to Nowhere
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Incredible….but another photo opportunity for p-p-p if it ever opens.
If only politicians who lie could be imprisoned and banned from future candidacy at any level! If only politicians who didn’t confirm to manifesto pledges ( even if fully costed like Labour’s were at the last election) could be imprisoned for ten years minimum. If only……
Harsh Diana. Besides, the prisons are already full…
I always thought that the value of a mayor would be that he could bring together parties to an issue and force them to find a solution. Jason Perry should be bring all those with a part to play into a room and lock the door until they agree a solution.
Is not the purpose of Croydon Council to further the interests of Croydon residents? If I were in Perry’s shoes, I would be hanging my head low in shame that residents are still awaiting completion of this bridge after 14 years.
If you were in Perry’s shoes, you’d be paying yourself nearly £90k a year for a part-time “job” where other people do all the work but you get all the credit and the publicity. You’d be able to give your mates well-paid non-jobs at the taxpayers’ expense and pursue your personal agenda with near impunity. Hanging your head low in shame? Grinning like a Cheshire cat, more like it
Another example that Jason Perry thorughout his whole political career in Croydon has simply been a pawn of property developers. More intent on delivering their interests than the people who vote for him. The simple task of providing basic infastructure has taken the best part of two decades and here he is crowing about this acheivement. Now we are supposed to thank him for it. Gawd only knows what he does if Purley gets another working swimming pool.
Amazing. So why were the maintenance issues not part of the original agreement? It’s routine to agree these with a commuted sum for maintenance payable in certain cases. As we know there was a complete failure of competence by the Council/Officers at the start of this project. Blame most likely attributable to the Legal/Planning services.