Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore and Labour Councillors in Finchley and Golders Green have responded to a Transport for London (TfL) consultation to object to the scrapping of the 611 school bus, from Stonebridge Park to Bishop Douglass School in East Finchley.

They welcomed the move to extend the 112 bus from Brent Cross to North Finchley, but disagree with TfL’s belief that pupils will walk from Finchley Central to Bishop Douglass or Christ College Schools if the 611 bus is scrapped.

Mr Dismore said:

‘I welcome the provision of a useful connection between North Finchley and Ealing, having called for many years for improvements to orbital bus links. It is good to see that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is taking this seriously and improving services, even at a time of severe cuts by the Government to the TfL budget. I urge all residents interested to respond to this consultation and make their views know.’

East Finchley Councillor Arjun Mittra added:

‘The problem with this plan is that TfL expect school children to walk up East End Road from Finchley Central to get to Bishop Douglass and Christ College Schools. I think this is unlikely, given it is a bit of a walk, and is uphill in the morning. It is far more likely that pupils will take the 143 bus from Finchley Central, but that bus service is jam-packed during school pick-up and drop-off times. There would either need to be an increase in capacity on this service at that time, or double-decker buses may need to be used.’

ENDS

Notes:

• Andrew Dismore is the Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden.
• Labour Councillors signing the letter are: Cllr Barry Rawlings, Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Anne Clarke, Cllr Arjun Mittra, Cllr Alison Moore, Cllr Claire Farrier, Cllr Kath McGuirk, Cllr Ross Houston, Cllr Danny Rich, Cllr Alan Schneiderman, Cllr Anne Hutton and Cllr Geof Cooke.
• The Consultation can be found here.
• A copy of the letter is here:112 and 622 bus consultation responses