IN BRIEF
According to road.cc, Transport for London has suspended more than two million pounds of funding earmarked for the south London borough of Croydon, pending repayment of the £234,917 granted since 2020-2021 for a protected cycle lane on London Road. Conservative mayor Jason Perry had the separators of that scheme removed; according to road.cc, TfL only found out when it came across a video the mayor had posted on Instagram. The freeze is delaying other schemes in the borough. Croydon has committed to repaying; road.cc notes that no timetable has been reported.
An Instagram post has proved costly for Croydon. According to the BBC, the mayor of this south London borough used it in May to announce that his council had removed the separators from a cycle lane funded by Transport for London — a move the transport authority had not been told about. The answer came through the budget: more than two million pounds of funding frozen.
Croydon must repay its cycle lane before it sees the rest of the money
The mechanism is straightforward, and road.cc sums it up as follows: « TfL has now suspended more than £2 million in funding towards the borough until it pays back the £234,917 which had been granted for the lanes’ construction since 2020/21. » In other words, nothing until the £234,917 granted since the 2020-2021 financial year for that London Road scheme has been paid back.
According to the same article, TfL was never informed: « TfL only learnt of the removal of orca kerbs and wands along London Road in Croydon when the Mayor Jason Perry published an Instagram video bragging about dismantling the infrastructure. » Perry, a Conservative, was then re-elected mayor within the week, road.cc writes, citing Croydon’s Local Democracy Reporter.
« Boroughs cannot use public funding to deliver a scheme and then unlawfully decide to remove it »
Will Norman, London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, sets out the principle bluntly in remarks reported by the BBC: « Boroughs cannot use public funding to deliver a scheme and then unlawfully decide to remove it. » Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporter, he spells out the sanction: « Funding for their Local Implementation Plan has been paused and any future support will be subject to a revised plan being agreed. » The Local Implementation Plan is therefore on hold, and any future support conditional on a revised plan.
The bill does not stop at the lane itself. Again according to road.cc, « the funding freeze is delaying the progress and installation of several pieces of active travel-related infrastructure in the borough […] »: among the delayed works, road.cc cites pedestrian crossings, contraflow cycle lanes and cycle parking spaces.
The mayor invokes safety, the opposition calls it a failure
The reasons put forward by the mayor appear in his May post, as reported by the BBC: the wands were « impeding local roads, causing congestion, limiting bus movements and, in some cases, holding up emergency vehicles ». road.cc counters that argument with the map record: « previous maps show the road had not been narrowed to accommodate the protected cycle lane » — that is, according to the British outlet, a carriageway that had not been narrowed for the protected lane.
The BBC notes a precedent: Perry had voiced comparable reservations in 2024, when the borough removed wands along Brighton Road, following complaints from traders about parking spaces and trip hazards.
Jason Perry defends the removal on safety grounds: according to the BBC, the Conservative mayor said the scheme « had endangered cyclists and blocked emergency vehicles », and that the council had agreed to repay the money. The political defence comes from another elected member — Alasdair Stewart, Croydon’s cabinet member for streets and enforcement, quoted by the BBC: « Jason Perry and Conservative councillors were elected to listen to residents, not rubber-stamp schemes they have made clear over many years they do not want. » Listening to residents rather than rubber-stamping schemes they do not want, as he puts it.
Labour MP Sarah Jones lays the responsibility at the mayor’s door, in remarks also reported by the BBC: « 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. » Croydon, for its part, has committed to repaying the sum — road.cc notes that no timetable has been reported.
