Move follows London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision not to back it

The decision to scrap the plans for a pedestrianised ‘garden bridge’ across the Thames river in central London has been welcomed by residents of the city with a mixture of anger and relief. The controversial project, which has had questionable levels of public support, has already cost the taxpayer over £37 million.

The Garden Bridge Trust, set up to build and run the project, expressed regret while talking of the decision on Monday, blaming it on a move by Mayor Sadiq Khan not to the back the project. “The Garden Bridge would have been a unique place, a beautiful new green space in the heart of London, free to use and open to all showcasing the best of British talent and innovation,” it insisted.

Johnson’s support

The project, based on the vision of British comedienne Joanna Lumley, had won the backing of the then London Mayor Boris Johnson who even described those who objected to the bridge as adopting a “Taliban-like hatred of objects of beauty”.

However, a strong local opposition movement built up swiftly, led by Thames Central Open Spaces, which criticised the lack of local consultation, the destruction of open green space on the river’s bank, and the vast amounts of public money being pumped into a project at a time when the country’s public finances were being stretched like never before. Others pointed to the fact that the bridge’s location — in a part of London with many other crossing points — was far from the city’s most pressing need.

A damning report published in April by Margaret Hodge, a well respected parliamentarian, had called for the project to be scrapped, pointing to the tripling of the project’s costs, and the mere £69 million in private backing it had attracted. Though an astounding £37.4 million of public money had gone into the project, the report concluded it would be better for the “taxpayer to accept the loss than to risk the additional demands of the project proceeds”.

Following the report, London Mayor Sadiq Khan insisted that no further public funds would go into it. “Londoners will, like me, be very angry that London’s taxpayers have now lost tens of millions of pounds — committed by the previous Mayor on a project that has amounted to nothing,” he said on Monday, following the trust’s announcement.

However, anger surrounding it remained, particularly in the wake of the debate around austerity and the provision of social housing following the Grenfell Tower fire in West London where at least 80 people died.

“I shall not weep for the death of the #gardenbridge but for the loss of the £37 million of public money that ought to have been spent on social housing,” tweeted David Boothroyd, a Labour Councillor.