MD1508 Dingwall Road Loop, Croydon

1.1. Croydon Opportunity Area

1.1.1. Mayoral investment in Croydon’s future is being developed in line with the Opportunity Area Planning Framework (OAPF) published by the GLA in January 2013. The main objectives of the OAPF are to support the development of 7,300 homes, plan the delivery of the social infrastructure necessary to accommodate 17,000 new residents, promote the redevelopment and renewal of the retail core, plan for the revival of prominent high streets, encourage the location of new office/commercial space around New Town and East Croydon, plan for, and enable, delivery of new and improved streets and amenity spaces, promote high quality architecture and built form and ensure enhanced transport and parking capacity.

1.1.2. The Croydon Partnership’s proposals to redevelop the Whitgift Centre into a new retail and leisure centre were granted planning permission on 25 November 2013. The project requires the demolition of the existing retail area bounded by George Street, Wellesley Road, Poplar Walk and North End in Croydon Town Centre and would replace the existing Whitgift Centre. The planning consent granted by London Borough of Croydon includes 600 new homes and a retail-led mixed-use development of 272,945 square metres in floor space. The land assembly process to allow for this redevelopment has begun. The GLA is supporting London Borough of Croydon in its efforts to proceed as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

1.2. Tramlink – Dingwall Road Loop

1.2.1. Transport for London (TfL) owns the Tramlink system and is responsible for the planning of tram services and the supporting infrastructure such as tram stops, depots and potential extensions. TfL procures a contractor to operate services to specifications it sets. The tram network centred upon Croydon opened in 2000 and has since seen major growth in demand and consequent service frequency increases. By the 2013-14 financial year over 31 million journeys were made on the tramway.

1.2.2. The Tramlink network has a one way loop through Croydon Town Centre via an on-street alignment, with four tram stops within close proximity of the Croydon Partnership development proposal. Based on initial forecasting work to date, the development is expected to increase Tramlink passenger demand by two million journeys per annum, adding pressure to an already busy network.

1.2.3. TfL has consulted on options for a second ‘loop line’ within the town centre utilising Dingwall Road and is moving towards a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) to secure powers to construct it. A further more detailed consultation regarding the preferred route option is now underway. The Dingwall Road Loop would enable some trams arriving at East Croydon from east of the Town Centre to be returned back east more quickly, routing less trams around the current town centre loop and therefore maintaining overall network frequency and reliability.

1.2.4. In the longer term further investment in trams, depot facilities and trackwork is expected to be essential. A Trams 2030 strategy has been developed and sets out initial proposals for a possible way of enhancing the existing network to secure the long term capacity and reliability of the system consistent with future growth. The Dingwall Road Loop is the next step in the Trams 2030 Strategy following completion of Wimbledon double tracking.

1.3. Connected Croydon – Wellesley Road

1.3.1. Connected Croydon is a programme of high street, public space and transport improvements that will transform the town centre and district centres by creating a more attractive environment to walk, live work, socialise and do business. A part of this programme, Croydon Council is delivering the Wellesley Road project in partnership with Transport for London and the Greater London Authority, supported by an £4.8m investment from the London Enterprise Fund (LEF).

1.3.2. The Wellesley Road project has been designed to create a public realm that is less dominated by vehicular traffic, creating an attractive public realm while maintaining traffic flows. It will deliver a comprehensive set of interventions to rebalance the streetscape and make the town centre more attractive and accessible to pedestrian users and cyclists. This includes the removal of subways and new at grade crossings at Lansdowne Road and Bedford Park.

1.3.3. During the design phase of the Wellesley Road project it has been established that the pedestrian crossings will adversely affect the tram journey times prior to Westfield opening. It has therefore been proposed to integrate the surface level crossing at Lansdowne Road and associated public realm enhancements with the delivery of the Dingwall Road Loop scheme which will bring the required mitigation measures to journey times. It was agreed that TfL and the GLA will jointly commission and client the design and place making elements of the Dingwall Road Loop project.

1.4. Funding

1.4.1. This project is being developed in order to facilitate the current and future development of Croydon and is the first building block of the Trams 2030 Strategy to be implemented (subject to TfL’s future business planning prioritisation). Increased efficiency and capacity of the tram network will be essential to the delivery of the new jobs and homes in the Croydon Opportunity Area.

1.4.2. The tram loop project is budgeted in the TfL business plan at £26.81m. Third party funding current amounts to £22.9m, including £5m from the GLA. It will be TfL's risk to cover any funding gap either by finding additional third party funding or finding it from within its own budgets. Would the cost of the scheme escalate beyond £30m, TfL would need to re-assess the value and benefits of the scheme.

1.4.3. Third party funding contributions are from the Westfield section 106 agreement (£15m), the Westfield section 278 agreement (estimated £1.4m as a contribution to the Wellesley Road bus stop and subject to agreement with the Croydon Partnership) and the Ruskin Square development (£1.5m). The GLA contribution is now being sought by TfL.

1.4.4. The delivery programme is currently dependent on the proposed Westfield implementation programme. The start of Westfield construction will release an initial payment of £5 million for this project, with subsequent annual payments of £5 million (up to £15 million). Until that point, TfL is developing the project at risk given the aspiration is to have the project delivered prior to Westfield opening. It is estimated that approximately £3m will have been sunk into development, consent and procurement before any contribution is expected to be received.

1.4.5. The design development of the Dingwall Road Loop project is on a critical path to achieve completion in time for the Westfield development opening, and is being progressed while the governance arrangements and design and of the crossing/public realm enhancements are being agreed. Additional costs beyond the current budget and funding of £26.81m for associated public realm improvements and the Wellesley Road surface crossing linking Lansdowne Road with the retail core are yet to be finalised. This process does not preclude the progression of the tram scheme.

2.1.The Dingwall Road Loop project will support the manifesto commitment to regenerate town centres and drive investment. Without increased efficiency and capacity of the tram network, the regenerative and housing benefits within the Croydon Opportunity Area cannot be fully realised.

2.2.The project has the following objectives:

• Improve reliability, by increasing the resilience and flexibility of the tram network;
• Recover from tram service perturbation more quickly;
• Accommodate the additional passenger demand from Westfield and other developments in the short-term without relying on higher frequencies across central Croydon;
• Enable an increase of Tramlink network capacity to and from Croydon in the longer term (Trams 2030 Strategy);
• Deliver integrated public realm enhancements in line with the objectives of the Connected Croydon programme, including a surface level pedestrian crossing over Wellesley Road at the junction with Lansdowne Road. (The crossing and enhanced public realm are subject to availability of additional funding beyond that shown at 1.4.4)

2.3.The project has the following outputs and outcomes:

The project will be developed and delivered in compliance with relevant Codes of Practice and in line with the public sector equality duty. All design proposals will be assessed in terms of accessibility to ensure we minimise disadvantages suffered by people who share a protected characteristic: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation.

a) Key risks and issues

b) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

The project will support the manifesto commitment to regenerate town centres and drive investment. The project will also support the objectives set out in:

• The London Plan;
• Vision 2020 – The Greatest City on Earth;
• London’s Great Outdoors;
• Improving the Health of Londoners – Transport Action Plan;
• Trams 2030 Strategy.

c) Impact assessments and consultations

A first round of public consultation was conducted in November 2014. This consultation included public exhibitions with the project team in attendance. Support was high, with 72% of respondents stating that in principle they supported a new tram loop to sustain reliability and improve capacity. Of the three options presented, the route via Dingwall Road and Lansdowne Road, with trams operating in an anti-clockwise direction was the most popular with 56% support.

This route, as illustrated in Appendix 1, is being developed further in the concept design stage. A new tram stop would be provided in Lansdowne Road and buses (which currently operate in the opposite direction proposed for trams) would be routed along Wellesley Road and George Street instead.

Early engagement with TfL Surface Transport has been positive as has the engagement with London Borough of Croydon, although there is still some detail to be worked through on direction of general traffic, vehicular access to businesses and the specification of the associated public realm works.

5.1 Capital provision has been made for the GLA’s contribution of £5m to Dingwall Loop, as follows:

6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

6.1.1 the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the GLA to do such things as may be considered to further, and or be facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the furthering of, the promotion of economic and social development in Greater London - including the provision of funding which might be provided by Transport for London where it is for the purposes of, or relates to, housing or regeneration; and

6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 Under section 120 of the GLA Act 1999 the GLA may pay grants towards meeting capital expenditure to be incurred or to be incurred by a functional body for the purposes of, or in connection with, the discharge of the functions of that body. If the Mayor is minded to approve the recommendations in respect of which decisions are sought officers must ensure that appropriate arrangements are put in place to record the availability and transfer of the capital funds pursuant to section 120 it is proposed is to be transferred from the Authority for the meeting of TfL’s capital costs in the related discharge of its functions in this regard, ordinarily dealt with by a letter from GLA (signed by an appropriately authorised signatory) to TfL recording the payment of the grant.

6.3 In taking the decisions requested of him, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this Mayoral Decision.

8.1.1. The existing Tramlink system was constructed and is operated through a Private Act of Parliament. The proposed Dingwall Road Loop Extension is to be constructed and operated through a Transport Works Act (TWA) Order. The TWA Order will provide Deemed Planning Permission which will have a number of planning conditions attached, to be discharged through and in consultation with the Local Planning Authority.

8.1.2. The development and delivery of the project will be overseen by a project board comprising officers from TfL, Tramlink, the GLA and the London Borough of Croydon.

8.1.3. A project team has been established for the development and submission of the TWA Order. The team is supported by discipline lead commissions which comprise engineering, environmental, public realm design, traffic modelling, Construction Design Management co-ordinator, risk and legal; all of which have been competitively tendered.

8.1.4. The procurement strategy has been developed and is considering the procurement of the following as single or multiple packages, including the potential for early contractor engagement:

• The management of and relocation of the utilities;
• The detailed design of the alignment and associated works in accordance with the TWA Order;
• The discharge of the planning conditions attached with the TWA Order;
• Systems design and integration;
• The management and relocation of utilities (including potential for advanced works);
• The construction of the main works (track, overhead line equipment, public realm and streetscape);
• A delivery partner.

8.1.5. The delivery procurement will likely use a standard NEC contract.

8.1.6. The baseline programme for the project is set out below: