Transport for London (TfL) has frozen £2.067m in funding for Croydon after the council removed protective measures from a cycle lane without consent.
TfL said Croydon Council must repay £234,917 spent on the London Road scheme before its wider Local Implementation Plan (LIP) can resume.
The leading transport body discovered the cycle lane had been dismantled after seeing an Instagram post by Croydon Mayor Jason Perry in May.
The scheme, first built in August 2020, used vertical posts – known as wands – to separate cyclists from traffic. Mr Perry said they caused congestion, restricted bus movements and could delay emergency vehicles.
Will Norman, Walking and Cycling Commissioner for TfL, said: ‘Boroughs cannot use public funding to deliver a scheme and then unlawfully decide to remove it.’
Croydon also failed to submit the required notification under the Traffic Management Act before removing the lane.
Norman added: ‘It is right that the council is required to repay the TfL funding that was spent on the cycle lane they removed without consent. Funding for their LIP has been paused and any future support will be subject to a revised plan being agreed.
‘This should send a clear message to all boroughs: if you accept TfL funding, we expect you to deliver the projects that funding was intended to support and follow the legal processes.’
The council has agreed to repay the £234,917 and is revising its funding plan. TfL said the winder funding could be released once the updated submission has been approved.
The freeze could delay transport and road safety projects, including schemes for safer crossings, bus improvements and cycle parking.
Sarah Jones, an MP for Croydon West, said: ‘Mayor Perry’s repeated disregard for process has left Croydon residents paying the price.
‘Funding for safer crossings, better bus journeys, improved cycling infrastructure and road improvements has now been put on hold because of the Mayor’s catastrophic failure to work constructively with TfL.’
However, Perry has defended his decision to get rid of the wands, claiming they were dangerous for cyclists because contractors couldn’t clean the lanes.
‘They had to go, and I took decisive action to remove those wands,’ he said.
Alasdair Stewart claimed the local authority has a ‘constructive approach’ with TfL and criticised Jones saying: ‘Jason Perry has spent four years cleaning up the mess left by the last Labour council, securing investment and delivering improvements that residents and businesses actually want and are already feeling the benefit of, from the new Wellesley Road crossing to improvements on Dingwall Road and George Street.
‘Ms Jones has been a Croydon MP for almost a decade, her residents may reasonably ask what she has delivered of comparable significance before she issues another party-political attack.’
Image: Denise Jans/UnSplash
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