Speaking to the Guardian about the the five-month delay by the Garden Bridge Trust in publishing its accounts, Caroline Pidgeon said:
“I suspect that the Garden Bridge Trust is using administrative tidiness as a desperate excuse to postpone publishing their accounts.
Writing at the "Bridge Too Far" website, Caroline Pidgeon describes the compelling reasons to cancel the Garden Bridge project:
Caroline concludes:
It is regrettable that the last Mayor devoted so much of his time to lobbying and secretly fundraising for the Garden Bridge. There are so many other projects he could have backed which would have delivered real benefits for Londoners.
Caroline met with the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Candidate Annabel Mullin for the West Central constituency and her local campaign team in Bayswater. Annabel is a busy mum to two young children and she brought them along to campaign in a cargo bike!
Caroline Pidgeon has criticised the Mayor and Transport for London over their failure to complete the installation of safety features for blind and partially sighted people at all London's pedestrian crossings.
Eleven crossings, including in busy central areas in Westminster, are still unsafe.
Caroline said:
Caroline Pidgeon joined community campaigners and the local Lib Dem London Assembly candidates for Lambeth and Southwark Michael Bukola, and for Merton and Wandsworth Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett to campaign against the proposed Garden Bridge development for the River Thames.
Caroline Pidgeon visited the Crossrail development at Paddingtion as part of a London Assembly Transport Committee site visit. Caroline witnessed a new station box being fitted out and walked down the tunnels in development to look at the progress. The engineering is very impressive and the scheme is currently on schedule.
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:
Commenting on the details emerging about the irregular process that approved the Garden Bridge contract - including secret meetings by the Mayor in San Francisco to raise funds for the project before it had been put out for tender - Caroline Pidgeon told the Architects' Journal:
Dave Hill writes in the Guardian on present and past proposals to pedestrianise Oxford Street - pointing out Caroline Pidgeon's advocacy of it, and the support from Lib Dem mayoral candidates back to Simon Hughes in 2004.
As a National Audit Office report highlights the uncertainty over the value for the public money being poured into the Garden Bridge, and George Osborne's bypassing of normal procedure, Caroline Pidgeon commented:
“It is incredible that, while the real benefits of the garden bridge are hard to quantify, George Osborne didn’t hesitate to instruct both the Department for Transport and the Mayor of London to pour taxpayers’ money into the scheme.”