Trust insists pedestrian crossing across the Thames will be built but that hold-ups have affected fundraising

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The charity behind the proposed garden bridge across the Thames in London has warned that any more hold-ups to the controversial and much-delayed project could see it having to be scrapped altogether.

While the Garden Bridge Trust insists it remains confident the tree and plant-filled pedestrian crossing will be built, it has conceded that the delays have affected fundraising and that any more significant obstacles could prove terminal.

It was ultimately up to the charity’s trustees, who include the project’s originator, the actor Joanna Lumley, to demonstrate the money committed – £60m of which comes from taxpayers – was being used prudently, its executive director said.

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“The trustees at every point of the way have to decide whether the project is viable, and if it’s prudent to keep going and spending money,” Bee Emmott told the Guardian.

“If at any point the hurdles become actual blockages that we can’t remove, then we have to reassess whether the project is ultimately viable or not.” Emmott added that she remained “confident that we can make progress”.

Her comments emphasise the seriousness of the delays to the controversial bridge, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and intended to run 367metres from South Bank to Temple in central London.



Construction was originally due to begin in spring 2016, but a series of problems have forced the trust to put contractors on hold, pushing up projected costs by £10m to £185m.

Part of the delays are logistical, including complex and ongoing negotiations with Coin Street, a community housing trust which holds a long lease on the site where the south end of the bridge would land, and must grant permission before any work can begin.

The political climate has also changed. The decision to give the bridge £60m of public money during a period of austerity, split between the Treasury and Transport for London (TfL), was taken when George Osborne and Boris Johnson, both big fans of the project, were respectively chancellor and London mayor.



Both have now moved on. Johnson’s Labour successor, Sadiq Khan, pledged that no more public money would be spent on the bridge and has asked the Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge to examine whether it provides value for money.

Of the £125m that the Garden Bridge Trust needs to raise itself privately, it has so fair achieved little over half, with £69m committed.

While Emmott said she was confident the rest would come, she conceded that fundraising had proved difficult amid the delays and the unknown timetable of Hodge’s investigation.

“It’s very difficult to get new funds committed while you’ve got that level of uncertainty,” she said. “We hope that the Hodge review will be concluded soon to remove this.”

The bridge has received a mixed reaction since the £60m was committed to it in 2013. At one point Lambeth council on the south side of the project withdrew support, only changing its mind when £20m of the TfL grant was turned into a long-term loan.

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While supporters say it will more than pay for itself as a driver of tourism and a transport link, critics argue it is in an over-crowded section of London already well served by bridges.

They also question why taxpayers’ money should go on a link that will be privately run and can set its own rules and close at night and for corporate events.

Paradoxically, the one thing that might save the project is that so much public money has already been spent on it. Khan has argued it would cost more to cancel the scheme than to go ahead with it.

Emmott said the coming few months were very important for the bridge’s future. She placed much of her faith on similar arguments, saying that Hodge should see the value for money argument in pushing ahead.

The trust has already spent £36m of the public funds on pre-construction work, she said. “If the project terminates at this point we could spend up to an additional £9m covering our termination liabilities.

“Value for money, from a pure numbers perspective, would be to deliver the project and get the full benefits. The Garden Bridge Trust pays back the TfL loan and £20m-plus in VAT. The maths of it is where the value for money argument lies.”