“I raised the issue of the extension to Crystal Palace here in Parliament on November 25. Here is what was said. I am pleased that common sense has prevailed and that we have now moved to having a non partisan approach to this issue. To have a coalition that stretches from the Conservative leadership of Croydon Council to Ken Livingstone allows us to put Croydon first.

Again, here is what was said with thanks to Hansard.

Mr. Andrew Pelling (Croydon, Central) (Ind): Also on the south London line is Crystal Palace station. There has been an announcement from City Hall in the past few weeks that the extension of the Croydon Tramlink to Crystal Palace will no longer be worked on. There was £9.9 million in the budget for the scheme, but city hall has said that it will not progress with it unless the Government commit to funding the whole scheme beyond 2010. If we were to ask the Government for the money, would that be possible?

Jim Fitzpatrick MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport and Minister for London) : I take it that the hon. Gentleman is expressing regret at the election of Mayor Johnson, and at the dropping of many of the priority plans of Mayor Livingstone. The Department for Transport has allocated a fairly generous settlement to Transport for London of £40 billion over the next 10 years. I know that the hon. Gentleman¿s constituents will be disappointed at Mayor Johnson¿s decisions, as are many people across London, but he has the money to prioritise the elements of transport that he thinks are appropriate, and perhaps he will take notice of what the hon. Gentleman says.”

“Tramendous news”

“Lets hope the extention goes back on track”

“The problem is that central government spends all of its money on benefits, health, education, etc and not on infrastructure, which to me is the backbone of the country and thus the most important thing of all. Evidence of this policy can be seen by the fact that the government is forcing up the price of train fares so that it can reduce the amount of money it puts into the already sub-standard rail system.”

“If it's a question of cash, I'd rather they scrapped the Olympics, and used Londoners' money for our REAL long-term advantage: better transport.”

“David above is correct.

Additionally, TFL can't even run a succesful service with what they have, let alone extend the shambles.”

“My understanding is that the Mayor was forced to make the decision because central Government wasn't willing to put forward the money for this and other projects, which had a total cost of something like £3bn. TFL wouldn't be able to fund such projects itself, but would instead have to rely on central Government or private money. Maybe someone can confirm whether that is the case, as if it is I can't see why Boris is getting the bad publicity for something he has little control over - if anyone should be blamed it is central government.”