No one can afford ticket machines for the Bridge to Nowhere – Inside Croydon

Bridge to Nowhere: six months after the link to Cherry Orchard Road was finally completed, Croydon Council’s ‘planning’ failures and Network Rail budgets mean that the East Croydon Station bridge can still not be completed

After 11 years and at least £22m of public money, it now turns out that the organizations responsible for the pedestrian bridge at the northern end of East Croydon Station don’t have the readies to finally complete the project, as JERRY FITZPATRICK explains

Let’s begin with a timeline to refresh our memories:

April 2010: Six Prime Ministers ago. £20million taxpayer-funded project is announced to build a footbridge across East Croydon Station: £14million from Network Rail and £6million from Croydon Council (the costs would rise towards £22million by the time of near-completion). Seen as a key point of the borough masterplan to form the basis of the area’s regeneration. The objective: to relieve pressure on the station front entrance and to provide an easier route into the town center for people living in Addiscombe.

The public were assured that, subject to planning permission, the bridge would open in 2013.

October 2010: Menta boss Craig Marks proposed a scheme for a 53-storey tower block overlooking Cherry Orchard Road, overlooking East Croydon Station, and announced he would take responsibility for providing the link to the new station bridge. In due course, he entered a Section 106 agreement with Croydon Council.

2013: The bridge was partially constructed. The eastern link was conspicuous by its absence. Inside Croydon dubbed it “the Bridge to Nowhere”. The nanem has stuck.

2013 to 2024: Menta has built six residential tower blocks along Cherry Orchard Road and one block providing affordable and social housing on the other side of the road. The 53-storey tower was abandoned some time ago.

2023: Marks announced that he had commissioned the construction of the bridge link to Cherry Orchard Road.

March 2024: the link is ready to attach to the rest of the bridge.

Yet the bridge is no closer to being opened.

The annual meeting of the East Croydon Community Organization was scheduled for July 16. Croydon Council, Menta and Network Rail accepted invitations to answer questions from the community. From Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, the head of planning, and Owen Thompson of the regeneration team. From Menta, senior manager Richard Lewis. From Network Rail, Robbie Lough, project manager of the East Croydon scheme and Harry Stevenson, a manager in the comms team.

Almost 100 ECCO members gathered at Christ Church Methodist Church in Lower Addiscombe Road. I provided some questions in advance to the speakers to ensure they cut quickly to the chase. The two main obstacles to the bridge being completed were quickly established:

• The link needs to be attached. No party has yet to take financial and legal liability for this
• After 11 years of disuse, considerable maintenance work has to be done to the bridge to make it safe. After that, one party must take responsibility for ongoing maintenance

Network Rail said that the extensive bridge maintenance work had been put out to tender, but that the quotations which had been returned were higher than they were prepared to pay.

The contract for the work would be retendered. No date had been fixed for doing that. Network Rail conceded that at the very earliest, the issue would not be resolved until well into 2025.

There was no satisfactory answer as to why the parties had not previously acted to address maintenance issues and resolve the issue of ongoing legal and financial liability.

Both Croydon Council and Network Rail highlighted the cost of the work to be done. The parties repeated that they were regularly engaging in cordial talks. But as for one party picking up the tab for ongoing financial responsibility, there was silence.

Left hanging: 11 years after the ‘grand’ opening of the bridge at Caithness Walk, the eastern end still cannot be completed

Both Croydon Council and Network Rail acknowledged that communication with the public had been “inadequate”. They would, they promised, do better in the future.

I now asked a question which an ECCO member who could not attend had submitted. Would the bridge link provide access to the station with ticket gates?

When I saw the question, it didn’t seem worth asking. The project was conceived with the very purpose of providing access to the station.

The answer from Network Rail was a bombshell. They couldn’t afford ticket gates. So there wouldn’t be access to the station.

There we have it. A £24million capital project, in which Menta were allowed to go 11 years before they provided the essential bridge link. Meanwhile, Network Rail fails to take action over the maintenance of the bridge, and Croydon Council and Network Rail fail to resolve issues which should have been anticipated, such as ongoing responsibilities for maintenance. And they can give no undertaking about when such issues will be resolved.

The final insult added to the community injury: the main purpose of the bridge, to give the people of East Croydon and Addiscombe access to the station, quietly, secretly abandoned. Inadequate communication indeed.

It might be reasonable to think that the rail service provider – Govia Thameslink – would fund the provision of ticket gates. But rail passengers have little hope of anything from GTR. Perhaps nationalization may lead to more effective joined-up decision-making? In the meantime, we are all left hanging, much like the Bridge to Nowhere these past 11 years…

Menta has belatedly done its bit, other than resolving (with the other parties) responsibility for the linkage of their final piece to the bridge.

As for Network Rail and Croydon Council, they will continue to talk very nicely to each other. They may even keep us better informed of what they are discussing. As the benchmarks have been so lamentably low, this is a promise easy to fulfill. But don’t hold your breath. And prepare to be surprised if their splendidly cordial talks lead to early positive action.

When the bridge project was announced in 2010, Croydon Council’s cabinet member responsible for planning, conservation and climate change was Jason Perry. He gave the scheme his full support: “This a truly exciting initiative that will be enormously valuable to everyone using East Croydon Station and will help stimulate further development in the area.”

Perhaps the current Mayor Jason Perry can bring the project to a speedy, and complete, fruition?

• Jerry Fitzpatrick is a former Labor councilor for Addiscombe West ward

WARNING

FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page

PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our near 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, which is featured on Google News Showcase and followed by 16,000 on Twitter/X, email us [email protected] for our unbeatable ad rates

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicize your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at [email protected]

• As featured on Google News Showcase

• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye shop