Conservative politicians have put their weight behind the Croydon Guardian’s Zone 4 Croydon campaign and are hoping to meet with Boris Johnson to get his support.

We are calling for both East Croydon and West Croydon to be changed from Zone 5 to Zone 4 stations.

Go to www.croydonguardian.co.uk/zone4 to sign our campaign petition.

The idea behind it is to get the stations into a more affordable zone for commuters, shoppers and the people who live here.

East and West Croydon are both in Zone 5 and a seven day travelcard covering Zones 1 to 5 costs £53.40.

This is £8.40 more expensive than the cost for Zones 1 to 4, which is just £45.

And an annual travelcard for Zones 1 to 5 costs commuters £2,136 while the equivalent cost for Zones 1 to 4 is £336 a year less at £1,800.

The campaign was started by Croydon North MP Steve Reed and Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Croydon Central Sarah Jones before being adopted by Croydon Guardian.

And now Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell and Croydon and Sutton London Assembly member Steve O’Connell have got on board.

Mr Barwell said: "I fully support any initiative that reduces the spiralling costs for commuters in Croydon.

"Whilst I agree with the principle behind the campaign, if you look at the current Transport for London zones, other parts of south London that are a similar distance from central London such as Sutton, Cheam and West Wickham are also in Zone 5.

"It’s not credible to pretend that this is just a Croydon problem - and indeed it is in our interests to involve other areas that are similarly unfairly treated.

"That’s why Steve O’Connell and I have requested a meeting with TfL director Sir Peter Hendy and Mayor Boris Johnson to seek their support for a review of the zone boundaries."

Councillor O’Connell, who is also Croydon and Sutton London Assembly member, added: "The concern that Steve and Sarah are showing for the plight of commuters is admirable, and we all want to help alleviate the costly burden of public transport.

"I’ll be working with Gavin and Steve to get Boris Johnson to add his weight to our call for the rezoning to take place.

"Hopefully we can then all work together to secure the Department for Transport directive to make it happen."

Before the changes can be made, the companies in charge of the stations, Southern for East Croydon and TfL for West Croydon, would need to get the agreement of all the train operating companies who are members of the travelcard agreement before making a formal proposal to Department for Transport.

The Secretary of State for Transport would then have to agree the change.

It usually takes a minimum of a year for re-zoning to take place.

Go to www.croydonguardian.co.uk/zone4 to sign our campaign petition.