Responding to the news that the Garden Bridge Trust has announced the closure of the project, Labour London Assembly Member, Tom Copley AM, said:
“It’s a relief that the Trust have finally decided to stop flogging this dead horse. With Dame Margaret Hodge’s report raining down utter condemnation on the way this project had unfolded, it’s astounding that the Trust has chosen to cling on for so long.
“The integrity of this entire project has long been called into question. It has been made abundantly clear that the Garden Bridge was not an appropriate use of TfL funds, that it did not present value for money and that it was financially unviable. The Trust showed no signs of being able to raise the capital needed to build the project, or raise the revenue to meet the maintenance costs, and such little consideration was given to the liability this would cause to the public purse. This farcical endeavour should have been cut short many moons ago.
“Mayor Khan's decision to stop any further public money being wasted, once he saw the resounding evidence that this was a poor project, was very welcome. However, it is a scandal that the cheerleaders for the bridge were allowed to waste so much public money by his predecessor. Boris Johnson drove forward this vanity project during his mayoralty, and the lion's share of the blame for this whole debacle must fall at his feet.
“There’s no way back for those backing the Bridge, but it’s a crying shame that so much has been lost in terms of vital public funds. Going forward lessons must be learnt, and I’m certain my colleagues on the London Assembly’s Oversight Committee won’t relinquish the opportunity to give this calamity the proper scrutiny it deserves.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Tom Copley is a Londonwide Assembly Member