Transport for London funded the scheme at a cost of £1million but the council insists taxpayers will not lose out, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

The bus lane in Regents Park Road has a large arrow pointing towards a driveway (credit Barnet Conservatives)

Barnet Council will face no extra costs to “correct” work to a newly introduced “dangerous” bus lane scheme in Finchley, councillors have been told.

Work began on the half-mile bus lane in Regents Park Road this summer but concerns were raised the road wasn’t wide enough with the new lane blamed for “increased congestion” and buses being “required to cross into the path of oncoming traffic”.

Transport for London (TfL) funded the scheme, which cost just over £1million.

Residents also complained they were not informed of the proposals, with a public consultation in 2024 receiving a 12% response rate and objections to a statutory consultation, later the same year, only representing 3% of responses.

In contrast, a petition launched last month calling for the bus lane to be removed has gathered 1,657 signatures to date.

In response to local people’s concerns, the council decided to review the scheme.

During a council meeting on Tuesday (21st) Conservative councillor Josh Mastin-Lee asked the cabinet member for environment and climate change, Alan Schneiderman, how much the corrective works would cost.

Cllr Schneiderman said: “Lots of concerns have been raised regarding the implementation of the Regent’s Park Road bus lane which I take extremely seriously, which is why the scheme is being reviewed.

“We got the design consultants to carry out a full independent safety audit of what had been done, which is why a range of amendments have been proposed and some of those we’ve been through with ward members. Officers will go through additional ones and the full outcome and next steps will be presented shortly.

“All the costs of this are being met by the design consultants; there are not any extra costs for the council as a result of these amendments.”

Opposition leader Peter Zinkin asked whether the consultants “actually” viewed the road when developing the scheme.

Cllr Zinkin said: “On our visits to the area it is inconceivable to us that professional consultants could have put together the scheme they did if they’d actually visited and seen what it’s going to look like.”

In response, Cllr Schneiderman said: “The design consultants have made many visits to the site to see the situation on the ground, to observe traffic, to take measurements. This was not a scheme that was just planned by someone sitting at their computer.

“As a result of the concerns being raised, independent safety auditors revisited the site to see the way it was implemented and, as result of that, various amendments have been proposed and officers will be shortly going through those with ward members and setting out the next steps of the Regents Park Road bus lane.”

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