Petition to boost Whipps Cross serving W12 bus handed to City Hall with more than 3000 signatures
Wanstead Village Labour Candidates Jo Blackman, Paul Donvan and Daniel Morgan Thomas hand petition to London Assembly Member Tom Copley. Photo: Jo Blackman - Credit: Archant
A petition to reinstate the frequency of a bus serving Wanstead, South Woodford and Whipps Cross hospital has been presented to City Hall.
Wanstead Village Labour candidates handed the petition to reinstate the frequency of the W12 bus, which has gained more than 3,000 signatures, to London Assembly Member Tom Copley on February 8.
Mr Copley, who sits on the transport committee, presented the petition to the assembly to be referred to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in his capacity as chair of Transport for London.
Paul Donovan, one of the three labour candidates, said: “The number of signatures gathered in such a short period of time shows the strength of feeling in the local community about this bus service.
“It is important to so many people but particularly significant for those travelling to and from Whipps Cross Hospital.
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“We hope that TfL will take the message from the local community on board and restore the service to three times an hour.”
Paul Donovan was joined by fellow labour candidates Jo Blackman and Daniel Morgan-Thomas.
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The Monday to Sunday bus service has been slashed by a third, to two buses an hour, since December last year.
The petition comes in addition to a Redbridge council decision for Chief Executive Andy Donald to also write to the mayor of London appealing to reinstate the buses frequency.
Letters asking the Mayor to reverse the decision have also been sent by Cllr John Howard, Wanstead MP John Cryer and Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy.
Explaining the decision to take the matter to City Hall, Daniel Morgan-Thomas said: “We think that after gaining more than 3,000 signature it is appropriate that we take this issue to the top,”
He added: “We hope that this will make our campaign more effective in reversing the rash decision to reduce the bus service.”
Commenting before the changes came into effect, campaigning group East London’s Save Our Buses (SOB) had monitored the performance of the W12.
They found that, during peak hours, services were struggling to cope with traffic delays, buses are running close together instead of being evenly spaced and there are shortened journeys, missing out the ends of the route.
