The London Assembly has requested that Transport for London (TfL) fully recover any public money allocated to the Garden Bridge project. The Assembly also agreed a motion calling for the Mayor to promptly answer all Mayoral Questions relating to the Garden Bridge procurement process.
Caroline Pidgeon, who proposed the motion, said:
“Over the last year detail after detail about the unorthodox procurement process for the design of a pedestrian bridge over the Thames has slowly come to light thanks to excellent investigative journalism and the hard work of the London Assembly.
"The latest discovery is that even before Transport for London had invited companies to submit their design bids for the bridge the Mayor was flying around the world at taxpayers’ expense to promote one specific design. It is time that the full facts over the procurement of the design contract were finally revealed. In the meantime not a penny more of public money should be poured into the project and every attempt should be made to recover any public money already allocated.”
The full text of the motion is:
The Assembly notes the latest revelations about the procurement process for design services for a proposed pedestrian bridge linking South Bank to Temple.
The Assembly regrets that the Mayor has described his publicly funded trip to San Francisco in early February 2013 as merely a private trip. Furthermore, the Assembly expresses its concern that the Mayor was willing to attend meetings seeking sponsorship for one specific design when TfL had not even started the procurement process for the design of the bridge.
The Assembly urges the Mayor to fully comply with any outstanding and further inquiries by the GLA Oversight Committee and to ensure that all Mayoral Questions relating to the Garden Bridge are promptly answered.
The Assembly reiterates that there is no case for any TfL funding to be allocated to the Garden Bridge Trust and urges TfL to now enter into discussions to ensure that existing public money allocated to the project is fully recovered as quickly as possible.