Funding For Better Buses & Safer Streets At Risk Due To Croydon’s Conservative Mayor

Croydon residents and businesses will be dismayed to learn that funding to make our roads safer and our buses faster has been withheld from our communities, all thanks to the Conservative Mayor playing political games to the detriment of us all.

TfL awards London boroughs money to fund improvements through a scheme known as Local Implementation Plans (LIP) – Croydon had requested £3.3m of funding for the 2026/2027 financial year.

This money had been planned for use on schemes such as making Portland Road in South Norwood safer and making buses across Croydon more reliable.

However, thanks to the Conservative Mayor removing TfL-funded cycling infrastructure along London Road without prior consultation, TfL had no choice but to withhold Croydon’s 26/27 allocation of LIP funding.

This decision also puts the council at risk of having to return almost a quarter of a million pounds worth of funding to TfL, money that was used for the installation of this infrastructure.

Croydon will now be in the position of having to resubmit a fresh LIP submission, several months into the financial year, not only delaying improvements but potentially putting their whole implementation at risk.

It is well known that Croydon is not a council with huge funds available.

It is therefore vital that the council looks to maximise external investment opportunities and it is a great shame that by playing political games, much-needed money to improve our
streets is at risk.

We know that the cycle wands were not by any means perfect. We heard businesses and residents raise legitimate concerns about them. But the right response should have been evidence-led and focused on drawing up new measures that work for all road users.

We do however wish to have genuine consultation and engagement with partners
and residents about the future of active travel along this busy corridor and making
our roads safer in other parts of the borough – consultation the Conservative Mayor has failed to hold.

Croydon Labour councillors, led by our group leader Stuart King and shadow cabinet
member (Streets & Enforcement) Tom Bowell will continue to hold the council to account and work with partners to secure this funding and, most importantly, to deliver these schemes to improve our streets.