Mayor Sadiq Khan said he has personally intervened to bring forward the reopening of a Croydon bridge today.

The reopening of Blackhorse Lane Bridge, in Addiscombe, has been delayed until 2020, prompting anger from politicians, residents and local businesses.

Transport for London, which manages the project, previously promised repairs would be completed by January 2019.

Conservative city hall representative for Croydon and Sutton Steve O’Connell asked Mayor Khan if he would be able to personally intervene at Mayor’s question time in City Hall this morning.

Mayor Khan said: “We were told that the high-level indicative programme estimates a completion date of around 2 years from now.

“That’s not good enough.

“And so, I’ve personally intervened in that and we’re working with TfL to see what we can do to interrogate that indicative timeline to speed that up.

“We at city hall can’t dismiss this as a local project because local businesses are really being affected.

“I’ve read reports of one business for example closing down and that worries me hugely.”

The delay was announced at a full council meeting on Monday (October 8) by Croydon’s cabinet member for Transport and Environment, Cllr Stuart King.

Croydon Council branded the delay on the 120-year-old bridge ‘unacceptable’, while MP for central Croydon, Sarah Jones, who has a constituency office on the same road as the bridge, expressed frustration at the set back.

The closure has significantly reduced access to the area, affecting local businesses.

Eddie Fuhrmann, 51, works as a butcher at V.A Gibson on Lower Addiscombe Road.

Mr Fuhrmann said: "We're upset really. All the businesses are struggling at the moment.

"A lot of people used to cut across Blackhorse Lane to get to us.

"We used to do a lot of deliveries earlier in the morning but, due to the traffic, we can't anymore."