Transport for London interview questions

I applied online, then went ahead to answer the assessment questions sent to my email. Few weeks after I was sent an email to pick a date for my assessment centre, which I went for and passed , then was sent another date for my assessment centre 2 which was role play and face to face interview

Yikes. I found this one quite off putting. There was a phone interview, then a presentation to complete on what the priorities for the first six months in role would be, then a panel interview. During the phone interview the hiring manager said she thought doing the role would be painful and kept checking in that I was still interested. The presentation was fine to do, though I'm always a little put off by questions like this as it feels like free consultancy and many organisations pay at least a nominal fee for such involved work. The panel interview was the most strange interview I've ever had. They asked me very awkward questions, such as what I would do in specific scenarios that had little to do with the stated job description, such as members of the public complaining about idling buses or a tree being cut down. Things like this require deeper organisational knowledge as well as the skills they were hiring for so my answers were pretty poor! They asked questions about my family and previous maternity leave which I found questionable. They finished off by saying that whoever got the job wouldn't enjoy it. I was offered the job but didn't at all want to put myself in that environment so declined and offered to give my feedback on the interview process. When I declined I never heard back even as just a goodwill gesture. It feels like a lucky escape to have not been desperate for the job.