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Thames garden bridge plan gets green light from London mayor Thames garden bridge plan gets green light from London mayor
(about 5 hours later)
Construction of a garden bridge over the Thames could begin next year after it was approved by the mayor of London. A garden bridge over the Thames has been approved by the mayor of London but doubts remain over who will meet its substantial annual running costs.
The bridge has attracted criticism for requiring £60m of public funding, plus estimated annual running costs of £3.5m, while placing restrictions on access. Cyclists will not be allowed to ride on the bridge, which will be closed once a month and between midnight and 6am every day, while groups of eight or more will have to request a formal visit. The bridge has attracted criticism for the £60m of public money it will cost to build, despite initially being privately financed. It will have estimated running costs of £3.5m a year, which Westminster council has asked Transport for London (TfL) to act as guarantor for as a condition of granting it planning permission.
It has been derided it as a “luvvies’ folly” and another of the mayor’s novelty vanity projects. But ignoring the criticism, Boris Johnson announced on Friday that he had given the green light to the project. The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has insisted TfL will not do so but nevertheless expressed confidence on Friday that construction could begin next year. “The garden bridge will provide a fantastic new landmark for London whilst supporting regeneration and economic growth on both sides of the Thames,” he said. “It will create a stunning oasis of tranquillity in the heart of our city and boost our plans to encourage walking in the city.”
“The garden bridge will provide a fantastic new landmark for London whilst supporting regeneration and economic growth on both sides of the Thames,” he said. “It will create a stunning oasis of tranquillity in the heart of our city and boost our plans to encourage walking in the city.” The 367 metre (1,200ft) crossing from Temple to the South Bank with a public space and garden was the idea of Joanna Lumley and has been designed by Thomas Heatherwick, who created the petalled Olympic cauldron.
The mayor’s decision follows Lambeth council and Westminster council granting planning permission, although the latter made its approval conditional on Transport for London (TfL) acting as guarantor for the bridge’s annual running costs. Johnson has said he has no intention of underwriting the expected £3.5m annual bill. A number of concerns have been raised about the bridge, including the £30m that TfL and the Treasury will each pay towards the project, whose overall projected costs are £175m. Critics have claimed it is in reality a private space, not a public one, because it will close one day a month for fundraising events, as well as every day between midnight and 6am; cyclists will not be allowed to ride over it and groups of eight or more will have to request a formal visit.
The 367 metre (1,200ft) crossing from Temple to the South Bank was the idea of Joanna Lumley and has been designed by Thomas Heatherwick, who created the petalled Olympic cauldron. It has shifted from being a privately-financed endeavour to a project that will require £30m each from TfL and the Treasury to meet its £175m construction cost. St Paul’s Cathedral has argued that the bridge would have “irreversible impacts on some of the most iconic views [of the cathedral]”. With visitor numbers expected to reach 7.1m a year, peaking at 30,000 on Saturdays for a bridge with a capacity of 2,500 people, safety concerns have been raised.
Visitor numbers are expected to reach 7.1m a year, with peak crowds of 30,000 on a Saturday for a bridge that has a capacity of 2,500 people, prompting further concerns about crowd safety. Cyclists are allowed to cross the bridge but required to dismount. The bridge will include a public space and garden that will be free to access and will feature 270 trees, as well as shrubs, climbing plants, hedges and flowers. But the Thames Central Open Space campaign group, one of a number of critics calling for a public inquiry into the project, has pointed out that 30 trees will be cut down on the South Bank to make way for the bridge’s landing podium, Michael Ball, director of the Waterloo Community Development Group warned that the South Bank could not take the strain of further visitor numbers and said the Metropolitan police should have been asked to investigate the capacity of the bridge to take the strain. “We already have 22 visitor attractions on the South Bank; it’s one step too far,” he said.
It has said: “Despite its name, the garden bridge will be neither a garden nor a bridge, being mainly hard-standing space with less than half a football pitch of green space, and 90% of users are not expected to use it to cross the river. The garden bridge will have a devastating impact on the river’s ecosystem and historic foreshore, and will bring up to 7m visitors to a South Bank already bursting with tourists.” Despite Johnson’s announcement, Ball said the question mark over the annual running costs meant it was not a done deal. “We are not quite where Boris wants everybody to think.”
Lord Mervyn Davies, chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, hailed the mayor’s decision: “As well as being London’s newest and most imaginative green space, the garden bridge also brings wider benefits, such as reducing pedestrian journey times, creating a new route that avoids busy roads and providing jobs in construction and operation.” Wai-King Cheung of Thames Central Open Space, another group campaigning against the bridge, said: “The decision is no surprise but [deputy leader of Westminster council] Robert Davies categorically stated garden bridge won’t be built unless a guarantor can be found to pay for maintenance costs in perpetuity.
“Boris has refused to allow TfL to commit to this, therefore the Garden Bridge Trust has the huge task of finding a public body or a very unwise benefactor who is able and willing.” The group was considering a judicial review.
A spokesman for the mayor said: “The Garden Bridge Trust has clear plans in place to secure funding to cover all maintenance and operating costs for the bridge and the mayor has made it clear that TfL has no intention of picking up the bill. TfL will work with Westminster, Lambeth, the Garden Bridge Trust and a range of other organisations to agree the most appropriate way forward.”