Emma Best AM today presented our petition (which the Mayor of Waltham Abbey, Cllr Shane Yerrell, kindly agreed to have submitted in his name) to the London Assembly at City Hall. The petition, alongside Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP's petition organised by Cllr Sazimet Palta-Imre, is now set to be received by the Mayor of London.
She also raised a motion at City Hall supporting the extension of London Buses routes 215 and 379 to restore services between Waltham Abbey and Chingford. The London Assembly voted in favour of this motion, with cross-party support from the Conservatives, Greens and Liberal Democrats.
The motion is as follows:
"The 505 bus, running between Chingford and Harlow, is no longer in service. In May 2015, the bus operator Arriva handed responsibility for the route over to TrustyBus, reducing the service to just six buses a day.
The stretch between Waltham Abbey and Chingford was once frequently served 7 days a week by London bus route 242, with buses every 10 to 30 minutes from early mornings to late evenings. On a Sunday, the final bus from Chingford Station to Waltham Abbey would leave as late as 00:10.
Now, not a single bus provides a service between Waltham Abbey and Chingford. All bus stops on Sewardstone Road towards Chingford (except the Lea Valley Camp Site) are completely unserved.
This Assembly calls on Transport for London to restore a frequent, daily London Buses link between Waltham Abbey and neighbouring Chingford by extending route 215 (which currently terminates at the Lea Valley Camp Site on Sewardstone Road – just within the Waltham Abbey boundary), route 379 (which also terminates on Sewardstone Road), or both, to at least Waltham Abbey Town Centre."
We would like to give a massive thanks to all those who have signed and supported our petition, and especially Emma Best AM and Cllr Shane Yerrell. We would also like to thank Keith Prince AM (Con) and Sian Berry AM (Green) for supporting this cause at City Hall today.
Labour abstained from the vote - Leonie Cooper AM (Lab) explained that Labour sympathised with the motion, but bizarrely claimed the motion "was not accurate in certain parts", including that "bus route 242 doesn't go where it says it goes in the motion".
We hope that this cause gains support from Labour representatives as this progresses.
11 votes were in favour, and 0 votes were against.
Today's meeting at the London Assembly can be accessed here:
https://meetings.london.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=179&MId=7450&Ver=4