Image copyright Heatherwick Studio Image caption A review of the project said more than £37m had already been spent

A £200m plan to build a bridge covered with trees over the River Thames in central London has officially been abandoned.

The Garden Bridge Trust said it had failed to raise private funds since losing the support of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in April.

It comes after a review of the project recommended it be scrapped.

At least £37.4m of public funds has already been spent on the project and a further £9m is at risk.

In total, an estimated £46.4m of taxpayers' money - calculated as direct grants of about £26m from the Department of Transport (DfT), around £11m in services in kind from Transport for London (TfL) and the remainder in cancellation costs - has been spent, according to the review by Dame Margaret Hodge.

Mr Khan said it was his "duty to ensure taxpayers' money was spent responsibly".

"I have been clear since before I became mayor that no more London taxpayers' money should be spent on this project and when I took office I gave the Garden Bridge Trust time to try and address the multiple serious issues with it," he said.

"Londoners will, like me, be very angry that London taxpayers have now lost tens of millions of pounds - committed by the previous mayor on a project that has amounted to nothing."

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The mayor also refused to provide a financial guarantee to cover ongoing maintenance of the bridge, estimated to cost about £3m a year, which the trust said would be covered by closing the bridge to the general public for 12 days a year so it could be rented to corporate clients .

Foreign Secretary and former London mayor Boris Johnson accused Mr Khan of killing the Garden Bridge out of spite.

"Labour has no vision for London and no ambition," he said. "The Garden Bridge was a beautiful project and could have been easily financed."

The trust blamed losing the mayor's support for its inability to raise the necessary private funds to complete the project.

It said all potential benefactors and trustees decided the project could not happen without the support of the mayor.

But as early as January, the trust filed accounts for 2016 at Companies House in which its chairman Lord Davies admitted the project was not currently a "going concern" and that it had failed to raise any private funds since August 2016.

'Incredibly sad'

The same accounts showed the trust had yet to secure the land on the South Bank of the Thames for the bridge's southern landing. By April, when the project lost Mr Khan's support, the trust had still not secured the land on the South Bank.

In a letter to Mr Khan, Lord Davies said: "We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us."

He said the trust had raised £70m of private money towards the project and had satisfied most of the planning permission conditions.

"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," Lord Davies said.

"It is all the more disappointing because the trust was set up at the request of TfL, the organisation headed up by the mayor, to deliver the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects."

Analysis, BBC London transport correspondent Tom Edwards:

This shambles is an embarrassing mess for the capital and it has already descended into finger pointing and a blame game over who is culpable for wasting £46.4m of public money.

The trust blames the current mayor Sadiq Khan for not giving guarantees over maintenance. He blames the previous mayor Boris Johnson for backing a scheme financially that was not value for money, while Mr Johnson says it was up to the current mayor to make it work.

Ultimately this project was not absolutely vital - it was more a tourist attraction - and was born in a different age when London's transport budget was not as constrained.

And I think it got off to a dreadful start back in 2013 - when I started covering this - by crucially not asking locals if they wanted it.

Infrastructure needs political consensus, as projects span many parties and leaders, and the Garden Bridge never enjoyed that.

Monday's London Evening Standard, edited by former Conservative chancellor George Osborne, also blamed Mr Khan for the collapse of the Garden Bridge project.

In October the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed former prime minister David Cameron had personally intervened to approve extra taxpayer funding for the controversial project, against the advice of his own civil servants.

A ministerial direction - which a senior civil servant may ask a minister for to show he or she is ignoring the advice offered - was issued after cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood wrote to the Department for Transport expressing the "frustration" of both Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne at perceived hold-ups to the funding during 2015 and 2016.

The NAO added an initial commitment to provide £30m of taxpayers' money was made by Mr Osborne to Mr Khan's predecessor, Boris Johnson, without any DfT involvement.

Image copyright Arup Image caption Dame Margaret Hodge's review said the Garden Bridge's costs were spiralling out of control

Garden Bridge timeline:

A review of whether the Garden Bridge offered taxpayers value for money was launched at about the same time the NAO report was released.

Conducted by Dame Margaret Hodge, the former chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and MP for Barking, the review recommended in April that the project should be scrapped.

Andrew Boff, Conservative London Assembly member, said Mr Khan had wasted £9m in taxpayers' money as he could have scrapped the project as early as May of last year.

Thomas Heatherwick, who designed the bridge, said: "Our cities need optimistic, amazing people (who supported the project) like this. And London needs new bridges and unexpected new public places.

"The Garden Bridge has not found its right moment, but I hope one day it will and that London continues to be open to ideas that make life here better."

Get our morning briefing direct to your inbox, each weekday</s>A £200m ($259m) project to build a so called Garden Bridge across London's River Thames has been scrapped, the charity behind the plan announced on Monday 14 August. The Garden Bridge Trust said it has informed Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Transport for London and the Department for Transport that it will be winding up the project.

The decision comes after Khan told Lord Mervyn Davies, the chairman of the charity, in late April that he was not prepared to sign the guarantee for the annual maintenance costs of the Bridge, warning that it would "expose the London taxpayer to too much additional financial risk".

The Trust had already spent more than £37m of taxpayers' money on pre-construction work.

"It is with great regret that Trustees have concluded that without Mayoral support the project cannot be delivered," Davies said.

"We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the Mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us. We had made great progress obtaining planning permission, satisfying most of our planning conditions and we had raised £70m of private money towards 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 is all the more disappointing because the Trust was set up at the request of TfL, the organisation headed up by the Mayor, to deliver the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects.

"I would like to thank our donors and supporters, who gave us unstinting help and support along the way."

Actress Joanna Lumley first pushed for the idea of a Garden Bridge in 2013, when former Mayor of London Boris Johnson was in office. Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff, a long-term opponent of the project, said: "Sadiq Khan had all the information necessary to cancel this project in May last year.

"As Lord Davies' letter makes clear, however, his inability to make decisions has cost the public purse £9 million. His predecessor, wrongly in my view, clearly supported the plans for the Garden Bridge. It's clear that Sadiq Khan's indecision has wasted millions more pounds of taxpayers' money in the confusion.

"As we await the publication of transcripts from Margaret Hodge's secretive Garden Bridge review, the Mayor must now answer further questions about his contribution to this disastrous project."</s>A £200m plan to build a bridge covered with trees over the River Thames in central London has officially been abandoned.

The Garden Bridge Trust said it had failed to raise private funds since losing the support of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in April.

But is it just another project thrown into the pile of abandoned ideas?</s>These are external links and will open in a new window

A £200m plan to build a bridge covered with trees across the River Thames in central London has officially been abandoned.

The Garden Bridge Trust has announced that it is winding up the project due to a lack of support from the mayor.

In April, Sadiq Khan said he would not provide the financial guarantee needed for planning permission.

A review of the project said £37.4m had been spent and it would cost taxpayers £46.4m if it was cancelled.

Since the mayor's decision, the trust has been looking at other funding options, including speaking to the government. It said that all potential benefactors and trustees decided the project could not happen without the support of the mayor.

In a letter to Mr Khan, the trust's chairman Lord Davies said: "We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us."

He said the trust had raised £70m of private money towards the project and had satisfied most of the planning permission conditions.

"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," Lord Davies said.

"It is all the more disappointing because the trust was set up at the request of TfL (Transport for London), the organisation headed up by the mayor, to deliver the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects."

A review into whether the Garden Bridge offered taxpayers value for money said the project should be scrapped.

TfL had pledged £30m, but £20m of that was to be a loan, and the rest was from central government.

When he announced his decision not to back the bridge, Mr Khan said the project would expose taxpayers to financial risk.

"I have been clear that this should not be allowed to happen. Accordingly, the GLA (Greater London Authority) is unable to provide mayoral guarantees for this project.

"I regret that the significant expenditure of public funds and effort from both public bodies and the Garden Bridge Trust has not led to a situation where I can provide the guarantees requested."

Mr Khan has been asked for his response to the latest development.

BBC London's transport correspondent Tom Edwards said: "It was never really a transport project, it was a tourist attraction and crucially in 2012 no-one asked locals if they wanted it."</s>An ambitious project to build a 'garden bridge' over the River Thames has been officially abandoned.

The Garden Bridge Trust charity have announced that they will no longer be running the project due to a lack of assurance over maintenance costs if the bridge were to be built.

It was to be pedestrian-only and located between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges.

"The Garden Bridge Trust, the charity established to build and run the proposed Garden Bridge in central London, today announced that it will be winding up the project. It has informed the Mayor of London, as well as Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport, who have both allocated public funds to the project, of its decision. The Trust has had no choice but to take this decision because of lack of support for the project going forward from the Mayor.

On 28 April, Sadiq Khan wrote to Lord Mervyn Davies, Chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, stating that he was not prepared to sign the guarantee for the annual maintenance costs of the Bridge, a condition of planning consent, despite previous assurances given about his support for the project.

Since then the Garden Bridge Trust has examined in detail all options available to it. This included discussions with a potential benefactor who was keen to provide the required guarantee. It also had further discussions with the Government. Unfortunately, the benefactor concerned and the Trustees have all concluded that they cannot proceed with what was always designed to be a public project in the heart of the capital without the support of the Mayor of London.

Lord Davies has today written to the Mayor outlining the reasons why the Trust has taken this decision.

Lord Davies said: "It is with great regret that Trustees have concluded that without Mayoral support the project cannot be delivered. We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the Mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us. We had made great progress obtaining planning permission, satisfying most of our planning conditions and we had raised £70m of private money towards 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 is all the more disappointing because the Trust was set up at the request of TfL, the organisation headed up by the Mayor, to deliver the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects.

"I would like to thank our donors and supporters, who gave us unstinting help and support along the way."

The Garden Bridge project will now be formally closed. This includes terminating contracts, and concluding donor funding agreements. The Trust itself will then be wound up in accordance with the Companies Acts."</s>In news that will make our Editor want to throw a big lavish party, it's been announced that the controversial London Garden Bridge is dead.

The Garden Bridge Trust, the charity designed to build and run the proposed garden bridge, has informed the Mayor of London, Transport for London, and the Department of Transport of its decision to shut down the project. The latter two had both allocated funds for the project, but according to the Trust the lack of support from Mayor Sadiq Khan is the primary reason why the project has been shelved.

Khan wrote to Lord Mervyn Davies, Chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, in April, stating that he was not prepared to guarantee the bridge's annual maintenance costs - which planning permission had relied on. Despite having discussed receiving the guarantee from another potential benefactor, the trustees decided that they couldn't go ahead with a big public project that didn't have the mayor's backing.

The Garden Bridge has been controversial since its inception, even though it had Gurkha-rights campaigner Joanna Lumley behind it. Khan himself doesn't seem to have ever been that fond of the project, or at least the fact that it relied on public money, and put a halt to preliminary structural planning works last year. The London Mayor even launched a formal inquiry, which determined that the project should be cancelled outright because ballooning costs meant it wasn't value for money. This probably wasn't a surprise to most, since it had already been predicted to go way over its initial £60 million budget.

Maybe a similar bridge will prove to be more popular somewhere else on the Thames. After all, central London already has more than enough bridges. [Garden Bridge Trust]</s>London's Garden Bridge has been ditched after losing the mayor's backing, the charity leading the project confirmed today.

The Garden Bridge Trust had been planning a garden bridge across the Thames from Temple to the South Bank, but said today it will be winding up the project, after informing the mayor of London, Transport for London and the Department for Transport of the decision.

Read more: Garden Bridge review becomes thorn in Margaret Hodge’s side

Chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, Lord Mervyn Davies, said:

It is with great regret that trustees have concluded that without mayoral support the project cannot be delivered. We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us. We had made great progress obtaining planning permission, satisfying most of our planning conditions and we had raised £70m of private money towards the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects.

The charity said the controversial project will now be formally closed, including the termination of contracts and concluding donor funding agreements.

In April, London mayor Sadiq Khan pulled the plug on support for the project after a report by the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Dame Margaret Hodge said it was better value to write off the money already spent rather than continue with the project.

Khan said he had taken into account the recent report by Hodge, which highlighted escalating costs, a weak business case and "little regard" for value for money, and advised that the project should be scrapped.

Continuing with the project, would, he said, "expose the London taxpayer to additional financial risk". Hodge said the bridge was likely to cost more than £200m, while £37.4m of public funds had already been spent without any building work taking place.

And earlier this month, Khan told LBC £50m of taxpayers' money had already been spent.</s>The proposed Garden Bridge is seen spanning the River Thames in this artist impression received via the Garden Bridge Trust in London, Britain August 14, 2017. Garden Bridge Trust/Fran Edwards/Handout via REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters) - A project to build a pedestrian bridge covered in vegetation across the River Thames in central London was scrapped on Monday with Mayor Sadiq Khan and his predecessor Boris Johnson trading accusations over the costly failure.

Over 37 million pounds in public funds had already been spent on the Garden Bridge, with strong backing from Johnson, now Britain's foreign affairs minister, but Khan had voiced concerns about its financial viability and refused to spend any further taxpayer money on it.

Presented by its creators as an oasis of calm and greenery that would draw tourists and showcase British design and innovation, the Garden Bridge was denounced by critics as an extravagance that would bring little benefit to Londoners.

Originally estimated at 60 million pounds ($78 million), the project was likely to end up costing over 200 million, according to an independent review commissioned by Khan that found the business case for the bridge was poor and the funding uncertain.

"Londoners will, like me, be very angry that London taxpayers have now lost tens of millions of pounds – committed by the previous mayor on a project that has amounted to nothing," said Khan on Monday.

But Johnson, a Conservative, accused Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, of killing the Garden Bridge out of spite because it was initiated when Johnson ran City Hall.

"Labour has no vision for London and no ambition," he said. "The Garden Bridge was a beautiful project and could have been easily financed."

The not-for-profit trust running the project had secured 69 million pounds in private funding pledges, but had also lost several major donors. It threw in the towel on Monday, saying the bridge could not be built without Khan's support.

Khan criticised a lack of transparency in how contracts to design and build the bridge were awarded during Johnson's time as mayor and said he did not want to saddle London taxpayers with potentially unlimited costs to fund the bridge.

Khan took over as mayor from Johnson in May 2016.

The Garden Bridge was championed by the actress Joanna Lumley, an A-list celebrity in Britain who is known for her role in the comedy TV programme "Absolutely Fabulous".

The design contract had been awarded to Thomas Heatherwick, who previously designed the "cauldron" that carried the Olympic flame during the London 2012 games.

"The Garden Bridge has not found its right moment, but I hope one day it will," Heatherwick said in a statement.</s>A £200m Garden Bridge project has been scrapped the charity established to build and run it announced today.

The controversial bridge which was originally devised by actress Joanna Lumley and supported by former mayor of London Boris Johnson, would have featured 270 trees and thousands of plants and extended over the River Thames from Temple to South Bank.

The Garden Bridge Trust, the charity behind the project said it has informed the mayor of London, as well as Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport, of its decision, taken because of ‘lack of support’ for the project going forward from the mayor Sadiq Khan.

The trust said it had ‘no choice’ but to wind up the project as they cannot ‘proceed with what was always designed to be a public project’ without the support of the mayor of London.

In April, Khan wrote to Lord Mervyn Davies, Chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, stating that he was not prepared to sign the guarantee for the annual maintenance costs of the Bridge, needed for planning permission, as he said it would expose taxpayers to financial risk.

Since the mayor’s decision the trust has been looking for other funding, including ‘further discussions with the government’. However, the trust said that the benefactors and the Trustees concerned concluded the project could not go ahead without support for the mayor.

In a letter to Khan outling the reasons for the decision to scrap the project Davis said: “It is with great regret that Trustees have concluded that without Mayoral support the project cannot be delivered.

“We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us.

“We had made great progress - obtaining planning permission, satisfying most of our planning conditions and we had raised £70m of private money towards 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 is all the more disappointing because the Trust was set up at the request of TfL, the organisation headed up by the mayor, to deliver the project.

“It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects.”</s>The saga of London’s controversial Thames Garden Bridge project has finally come to end, as the Garden Bridge Trust has announced the official “closure of the project” after losing the support of the public and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

"It is with great regret that Trustees have concluded that without Mayoral support the project cannot be delivered,” said Lord Mervyn Davies, Chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust in a statement released today.

“We are incredibly sad that we have not been able to make the dream of the Garden Bridge a reality and that the Mayor does not feel able to continue with the support he initially gave us.”

Khan officially withdrew support for the project earlier this year, citing soaring construction costs and potential maintenance issues outlined in an April report conducted by Labour MP Margaret Hodge. A reported £37 million of public funds had already been spent on the project, money that will not be able to be recovered.

“It’s my duty to ensure taxpayers’ money is spent responsibly,” Khan said. “I have been clear since before I became mayor that no more London taxpayers’ money should be spent on this project and when I took office, I gave the Garden Bridge Trust time to try to address the multiple serious issues with it.”

The ambitious project, designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick, was first unveiled in 2013 as the result of a competition held by Transport for London. Early proponents believed the bridge would generate tourism and serve as useful pedestrian infrastructure, while critics saw it as a “vanity project” in an area of the city already well connected by a number of bridges.. Despite receiving planning approval in 2014, skyrocketing costs and questions about the legitimacy of the procurement process led to further loss of public and official support.

"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,” continued Davies. “It is all the more disappointing because the Trust was set up at the request of TfL, the organisation headed up by the Mayor, to deliver the project. It is a sad day for London because it is sending out a message to the world that we can no longer deliver such exciting projects.”
The Garden Bridge project is officially abandoned after Mayor of London Sadiq Khan withdraws support.