The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
This whole project absolutely reeks wrong. For instance, have you heard about the scoring matrix they used to choose the winning bidder, @PragueAddick ?
I think it's the festival hall on the south bank (I'm probably wrong) has a garden. So does the barbican centre. Plenty of shitty London concrete monstrosities can take on the mantle for a fraction of the price.
I must admit I don't know anything about the detail of this project or the economics. However it is important to enhance the beauty and greenness of London. We wouldn't want to end up like Hong Kong, Don't forget tourism is a massive industry for this country as well as hopefully making it a nicer place to live.
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
Prague - is this the primary object of your research. You have done great work on on the Olympic Stadium scandal but if the object is simply to bring Boris down you have lost quite a bit of respect from me,
Allegations and controversy aside, I think it was genuinely a nice idea. We're lucky to have a relative green city, in the sense of parks and open spaces, and the thought of having the garden bridge compliments that.
Not to mention it's the kind of gimmick attraction that is genuinely different and would attract quite a lot of visitors in my opinion. I think in that regard, it has a few similarities with another BoJo special - the Cable Car - albeit with a better location.
Was it practical? I'm not too sure. Was it a justifiable expense? Nah..
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
Prague - is this the primary object of your research. You have done great work on on the Olympic Stadium scandal but if the object is simply to bring Boris down you have lost quite a bit of respect from me,
Of course it bloody isn't.
The objective is to expose what has happened and then to hold to account those responsible. The OSC fully acknowledges that the whole OS story goes way back beyond Johnson. The architect Steve Lawrence, who works with us, has quite gobsmacking details about the first plan he worked on, whereby McAlpine would have both built and operated the stadium, therefore at no cost to the taxpayer. The trail on this one goes cold when it ends up on the desk of Tony Blair.
We've concentrated on the contract between LLDC and West Ham, and I personally got involved because those terms represent a commercial threat to our club. They are also unfair to other London clubs, and a bad deal for all taxpayers. That's why there is a coalition. Johnson signed off this contract. He was the head of the LLDC, until he resigned himself in late 2015 (after the ICO found in our favour and ordered release of the contract). He then said at the GLA assembly meet, which I attended, that he had no problem with the contract being released, yet he allowed the LLDC to appeal the ICO decision, which meant an 8 month delay, and me going through the adventure of an Information Tribunal.
Johnson did his best to slither away from responsibility for both this and the Garden Bridge, yet if he adheres to the capitalist principles he espouses (and I certainly do), then he is the guy at the top. He signed off on both. He should bear the consequences. Just because he now has a new job where he goes round the world insulting other countries, it does not mean he shouldn't be held to account for shit in London which is only starting to emerge, but which happened on his watch.
The LLDC has a second boss. Sir Robin Wales of Newham. We are after him too. He of course is of the Labour tribe. He does not have the same vaulting ambition as Johnson, but when it comes to the OS, he is 35% guilty. He and Johnson have two things in common.
Very angry about this. The budgets of Local Authority-maintained parks and gardens have been slashed in recent years and, amidst this, some see fit to champion a bridge - for the benefit of tourists - that would cost millions of pounds. Joanna Lumley was a leading proponent, wasn't she? So, what happens now? Private business to proceed without the public money? I doubt it. Litigation over who said what, who signed what? And Boris Johnson. Again. Fares up throughout his time as Mayor. And the commitment of public money to something that the public was not properly consulted about. Better, say I, that the money went into the upkeep of local parks and gardens. Another modern-day farce.
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
This whole project absolutely reeks wrong. For instance, have you heard about the scoring matrix they used to choose the winning bidder, @PragueAddick ?
No mate, I have not, is it something easily posted here?
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
This whole project absolutely reeks wrong. For instance, have you heard about the scoring matrix they used to choose the winning bidder, @PragueAddick ?
No mate, I have not, is it something easily posted here?
Not really, but you can have second-best: my precis of an interview on the radio this morning.
1. The idea was brought to Boris's attention in a letter from Joanna Lumley in 2012 (in which she thanked him "for the tulips" - whatever that means), introducing Thomas Heatherwick's idea for a pedestrian bridge, with a garden.
2. Johnson liked the idea and spoke to chum George Osborne about it, who suggested he (Johnson) should supply a loan of £30m for the deveopment. Osborne was far keener and persuaded Johnson to make it a grant instead of a loan; and that he would match it with another £30m grant from the Treasury. (Note: if it went ahead, Osborne (or at least the Treasury) would always get some/most/all of his money back, in VAT).
3. Johnson decided this project fell under the auspices of TfL. TfL (rightly) decided that, as the project was reliant on public monies, a contest was required, between competing architects. TfL ran the contest, in early 2013.
4. Thomas Heatherwick's firm, Heatherwick Studio, having already given Johnson the idea for a garden bridge, was one of the (three) firms invited to put forward concept designs, the others being Marks Barfield Architects (designers of the London Eye) and WilksonEyre (designers of countless bridges). (Heatherwick Studio designed the cauldron at the London 2012 Olympic Games and the new version Routemaster).
5. All three firms were invited to submit proposals for a bridge. (Note: the documentation included no mention of it being a "garden" bridge. When the two other architect firms were producing designs for a bridge that was not a garden bridge and one was, it is easy to see which of the firms was most liekly to win the bid, when you take into account the fact that Johnson was absolutely wedded to the idea of a garden bridge).
6. The scoring of the competition was... peculiar.
7. One section of scoring was cost. Heatherwick's bid was the most expensive. It was 3 1/2 times as expensive as the second-most expensive, and seven times as expensive as the cheapest. TfL scored Heatherwick equal-highest in the category of "cost".
8. Another section of scoring was on "Bridge Experience". - WilkinsonEyre have built several bridges (including Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the Peace Bridge in Londonderry, Media City Footbridge, Gatwick Pier 6 Connector and over 100 bridges for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link). - Marks Barfield have built several bridges (including Nine Elms to Pimlico Bridge, Tintagel Bridge in Cornwall, the White Horse Bridge at Wembley Stadium). - Heatherwick Studio have built a 12 metre pedestrian access way, welded together in Sussex and erected in Paddington Bason to span an inlet of the Grand Union Canal. TfL scored Heatherwick higher than the other two in the category of "bridge experience".
9. In short, it looks like Heatherwick were always going to win this design competition.
10. There was also an engineering competition. In the same way, this was always going to be won by Arup.
11. While the "competitions" were going on, Heatherwick and Arup were also in meetings, frequentlly with Peter Hendy, Boris Johnson, Johnson's Chief of Staff (minutes of which have never been released).
12. TfL has paid £8.4m to Arup. Heatherwick were a sub-consultant to Arup and have been paid c£2.5m.
13. Richard de Cani was the Managing Director of Planning for TfL, scoring the "competitions" that were won by Heatherwisk and Arup. He has since left TfL. And is now Director of Planning, UKMEA at Arup.
14. Isabel Dedring was the Deputy Mayor for Transport, under Boris. She has left that role. And is now Global Transporrt Leader at Arup.
To be clear, I am only reporting what I heard on the radio, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy. But, as the interviewee was Will Hurst, the Managing Editor of the Architects Journal and, as he has been digging into this since 2014, including by means of 25-30 FoE requests, it all seems to be pretty well-founded.
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
Prague - is this the primary object of your research. You have done great work on on the Olympic Stadium scandal but if the object is simply to bring Boris down you have lost quite a bit of respect from me,
Of course it bloody isn't.
The objective is to expose what has happened and then to hold to account those responsible. The OSC fully acknowledges that the whole OS story goes way back beyond Johnson. The architect Steve Lawrence, who works with us, has quite gobsmacking details about the first plan he worked on, whereby McAlpine would have both built and operated the stadium, therefore at no cost to the taxpayer. The trail on this one goes cold when it ends up on the desk of Tony Blair.
We've concentrated on the contract between LLDC and West Ham, and I personally got involved because those terms represent a commercial threat to our club. They are also unfair to other London clubs, and a bad deal for all taxpayers. That's why there is a coalition. Johnson signed off this contract. He was the head of the LLDC, until he resigned himself in late 2015 (after the ICO found in our favour and ordered release of the contract). He then said at the GLA assembly meet, which I attended, that he had no problem with the contract being released, yet he allowed the LLDC to appeal the ICO decision, which meant an 8 month delay, and me going through the adventure of an Information Tribunal.
Johnson did his best to slither away from responsibility for both this and the Garden Bridge, yet if he adheres to the capitalist principles he espouses (and I certainly do), then he is the guy at the top. He signed off on both. He should bear the consequences. Just because he now has a new job where he goes round the world insulting other countries, it does not mean he shouldn't be held to account for shit in London which is only starting to emerge, but which happened on his watch.
The LLDC has a second boss. Sir Robin Wales of Newham. We are after him too. He of course is of the Labour tribe. He does not have the same vaulting ambition as Johnson, but when it comes to the OS, he is 35% guilty. He and Johnson have two things in common.
1. They are both ****s.
2. We are going to nail them both.
Let's hope so - Johnson has got away with far too much for far too long.
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
This whole project absolutely reeks wrong. For instance, have you heard about the scoring matrix they used to choose the winning bidder, @PragueAddick ?
No mate, I have not, is it something easily posted here?
Not really, but you can have second-best: my precis of an interview on the radio this morning.
1. The idea was brought to Boris's attention in a letter from Joanna Lumley in 2012 (in which she thanked him "for the tulips" - whatever that means), introducing Thomas Heatherwick's idea for a pedestrian bridge, with a garden.
2. Johnson liked the idea and spoke to chum George Osborne about it, who suggested he (Johnson) should supply a loan of £30m for the deveopment. Osborne was far keener and persuaded Johnson to make it a grant instead of a loan; and that he would match it with another £30m grant from the Treasury. (Note: if it went ahead, Osborne (or at least the Treasury) would always get some/most/all of his money back, in VAT).
3. Johnson decided this project fell under the auspices of TfL. TfL (rightly) decided that, as the project was reliant on public monies, a contest was required, between competing architects. TfL ran the contest, in early 2013.
4. Thomas Heatherwick's firm, Heatherwick Studio, having already given Johnson the idea for a garden bridge, was one of the (three) firms invited to put forward concept designs, the others being Marks Barfield Architects (designers of the London Eye) and WilksonEyre (designers of countless bridges). (Heatherwick Studio designed the cauldron at the London 2012 Olympic Games and the new version Routemaster).
5. All three firms were invited to submit proposals for a bridge. (Note: the documentation included no mention of it being a "garden" bridge. When the two other architect firms were producing designs for a bridge that was not a garden bridge and one was, it is easy to see which of the firms was most liekly to win the bid, when you take into account the fact that Johnson was absolutely wedded to the idea of a garden bridge).
6. The scoring of the competition was... peculiar.
7. One section of scoring was cost. Heatherwick's bid was the most expensive. It was 3 1/2 times as expensive as the second-most expensive, and seven times as expensive as the cheapest. TfL scored Heatherwick equal-highest in the category of "cost".
8. Another section of scoring was on "Bridge Experience". - WilkinsonEyre have built several bridges (including Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the Peace Bridge in Londonderry, Media City Footbridge, Gatwick Pier 6 Connector and over 100 bridges for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link). - Marks Barfield have built several bridges (including Nine Elms to Pimlico Bridge, Tintagel Bridge in Cornwall, the White Horse Bridge at Wembley Stadium). - Heatherwick Studio have built a 12 metre pedestrian access way, welded together in Sussex and erected in Paddington Bason to span an inlet of the Grand Union Canal. TfL scored Heatherwick higher than the other two in the category of "bridge experience".
9. In short, it looks like Heatherwick were always going to win this design competition.
10. There was also an engineering competition. In the same way, this was always going to be won by Arup.
11. While the "competitions" were going on, Heatherwick and Arup were also in meetings, frequentlly with Peter Hendy, Boris Johnson, Johnson's Chief of Staff (minutes of which have never been released).
12. TfL has paid £8.4m to Arup. Heatherwick were a sub-consultant to Arup and have been paid c£2.5m.
13. Richard de Cani was the Managing Director of Planning for TfL, scoring the "competitions" that were won by Heatherwisk and Arup. He has since left TfL. And is now Director of Planning, UKMEA at Arup.
14. Isabel Dedring was the Deputy Mayor for Transport, under Boris. She has left that role. And is now Global Transporrt Leader at Arup.
To be clear, I am only reporting what I heard on the radio, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy. But, as the interviewee was Will Hurst, the Managing Editor of the Architects Journal and, as he has been digging into this since 2014, including by means of 25-30 FoE requests, it all seems to be pretty well-founded.
Thanks, @Chizz. I am reading this over my morning tea and having to remind myself that this is something that happened in London, and not Prague, which is notorious for City Hall corruption. If any Czechs read of that who think I preach too much about Prague political corruption, I'm in trouble.
@se9addick@redman . I would like to sheepishly concede that my post last night was written after several lively beers with mates. We cannot, on our own, expect to bring proceedings against politicians. All we can do is show clearly the evidence and where the blame lies. I was encouraged to do that in the last BBC London film but the editing was such that you could blink and miss it.
However I'm told that Sadiq Khan is firmly driven by an agenda to expose the misdemeanours of the Johnson regime; Khan, too has political ambitions beyond London. We see ourselves as preparing some of the bullets which Khan can fire. Then of course we have to hope and pray that Khan will keep himself clean. So far, I must say I am pretty impressed, although my Twitter feed has any number of black cab drivers who are not.
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
Prague - is this the primary object of your research. You have done great work on on the Olympic Stadium scandal but if the object is simply to bring Boris down you have lost quite a bit of respect from me,
Of course it bloody isn't.
The objective is to expose what has happened and then to hold to account those responsible. The OSC fully acknowledges that the whole OS story goes way back beyond Johnson. The architect Steve Lawrence, who works with us, has quite gobsmacking details about the first plan he worked on, whereby McAlpine would have both built and operated the stadium, therefore at no cost to the taxpayer. The trail on this one goes cold when it ends up on the desk of Tony Blair.
We've concentrated on the contract between LLDC and West Ham, and I personally got involved because those terms represent a commercial threat to our club. They are also unfair to other London clubs, and a bad deal for all taxpayers. That's why there is a coalition. Johnson signed off this contract. He was the head of the LLDC, until he resigned himself in late 2015 (after the ICO found in our favour and ordered release of the contract). He then said at the GLA assembly meet, which I attended, that he had no problem with the contract being released, yet he allowed the LLDC to appeal the ICO decision, which meant an 8 month delay, and me going through the adventure of an Information Tribunal.
Johnson did his best to slither away from responsibility for both this and the Garden Bridge, yet if he adheres to the capitalist principles he espouses (and I certainly do), then he is the guy at the top. He signed off on both. He should bear the consequences. Just because he now has a new job where he goes round the world insulting other countries, it does not mean he shouldn't be held to account for shit in London which is only starting to emerge, but which happened on his watch.
The LLDC has a second boss. Sir Robin Wales of Newham. We are after him too. He of course is of the Labour tribe. He does not have the same vaulting ambition as Johnson, but when it comes to the OS, he is 35% guilty. He and Johnson have two things in common.
1. They are both ****s.
2. We are going to nail them both.
Prague. Just so you don't think otherwise, I am 100% behind you on making people responsible and fully appreciate and support the work you do in this area.
Agree. If you take a walk along the South Bank, you'll see some notices on the trees there, which point out that something like 40 (I can't remember the exact number) existing established trees along the bank would be destroyed by building this expensive, unwanted bridge.
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
Prague - is this the primary object of your research. You have done great work on on the Olympic Stadium scandal but if the object is simply to bring Boris down you have lost quite a bit of respect from me,
Of course it bloody isn't.
The objective is to expose what has happened and then to hold to account those responsible. The OSC fully acknowledges that the whole OS story goes way back beyond Johnson. The architect Steve Lawrence, who works with us, has quite gobsmacking details about the first plan he worked on, whereby McAlpine would have both built and operated the stadium, therefore at no cost to the taxpayer. The trail on this one goes cold when it ends up on the desk of Tony Blair.
We've concentrated on the contract between LLDC and West Ham, and I personally got involved because those terms represent a commercial threat to our club. They are also unfair to other London clubs, and a bad deal for all taxpayers. That's why there is a coalition. Johnson signed off this contract. He was the head of the LLDC, until he resigned himself in late 2015 (after the ICO found in our favour and ordered release of the contract). He then said at the GLA assembly meet, which I attended, that he had no problem with the contract being released, yet he allowed the LLDC to appeal the ICO decision, which meant an 8 month delay, and me going through the adventure of an Information Tribunal.
Johnson did his best to slither away from responsibility for both this and the Garden Bridge, yet if he adheres to the capitalist principles he espouses (and I certainly do), then he is the guy at the top. He signed off on both. He should bear the consequences. Just because he now has a new job where he goes round the world insulting other countries, it does not mean he shouldn't be held to account for shit in London which is only starting to emerge, but which happened on his watch.
The LLDC has a second boss. Sir Robin Wales of Newham. We are after him too. He of course is of the Labour tribe. He does not have the same vaulting ambition as Johnson, but when it comes to the OS, he is 35% guilty. He and Johnson have two things in common.
1. They are both ****s.
2. We are going to nail them both.
Prague. Just so you don't think otherwise, I am 100% behind you on making people responsible and fully appreciate and support the work you do in this area.
Thank you, I did believe that, and I fully accept that bent politicians (and good ones, such as Andrew Boff and Damian Collins, to mention two Tories the OSC trusts) come in all colours. Power corrupts, always has, and always will.
“There was so much negativity about this £60m of public money,” she said. “All we heard was £60m, £60m, £60m. But . . . it’ll work out at about 32p a person in the UK. It’s not as if we’re stealing bread from people.”
“There was so much negativity about this £60m of public money,” she said. “All we heard was £60m, £60m, £60m. But . . . it’ll work out at about 32p a person in the UK. It’s not as if we’re stealing bread from people.”
Absolutely laughable. Makes me so angry.
Maybe we could use the 500 million we give to Pakistan every year. (For what who knows)
“There was so much negativity about this £60m of public money,” she said. “All we heard was £60m, £60m, £60m. But . . . it’ll work out at about 32p a person in the UK. It’s not as if we’re stealing bread from people.”
“There was so much negativity about this £60m of public money,” she said. “All we heard was £60m, £60m, £60m. But . . . it’ll work out at about 32p a person in the UK. It’s not as if we’re stealing bread from people.”
Absolutely laughable. Makes me so angry.
Maybe we could use the 500 million we give to Pakistan every year. (For what who knows)
Yes, maybe we could. Except it's closer to £350m.
But would it be better use of taxpayers' money? Instead of contributing to the reduction in real poverty in Pakistan, where 1 child in 11 dies before reaching 5 years old; where 12,000 women a year die in childbirth; 12 million children are not schooled; and 60 million people live in abject poverty, we could build the 34th bridge over the Thames and plant 200 more trees to go with the 7 million we have and to replace the dozens that would be cut down to make space for it.
Foe what it's worth, anyone can find out more about how much UK aid is given to Pakistan and what its used for. In the main, it helps fund the Benazir Income Support Protection, using a sophisticated means of delivering cash aid to individuals in most need, in Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, and Khyber-Pakhtonnkhwa. The program also operates in the federally administered regions of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
So, we can see what aid is used for in Pakistan, how much it costs us, where the money comes from and where it goes. None of which is the case with the Garden Bridge project.
There are some people who think that cutting aid to desperately poor individuals in a part of the world riven with anti-western rhetoric and a breeding ground for terrorism and using that to fund an un-needed vanity project in one of the world's richest cities would be a good idea. I don't.
“There was so much negativity about this £60m of public money,” she said. “All we heard was £60m, £60m, £60m. But . . . it’ll work out at about 32p a person in the UK. It’s not as if we’re stealing bread from people.”
Absolutely laughable. Makes me so angry.
Stupid bitch, why should the whole country pay for her vanity project which most would never see or use.
Probably a good idea if she learnt to count too. And what about the minimum three million p.a. upkeep costs?
These celebs really do live in a different world. This is not devastating and shattering as she puts it ... such an overreaction.
London must be one of the greenest cities going. What we don't need is a pedestrian only green bridge.
Privately funded in its entirety of course it would be a great addition to the capital but not before at least three publicly funded road/rail crossings East of London.
Great subject to beat posh people up over though, fill yer boots!
The OS guys who are closer to London politics than I am, assure me that Johnson has more to fear from this than the Olympic Stadium deal. They say the talk is of serious corruption. Of course if we can pile the OS thing on top of it, he will be under even more pressure.
Johnson's achilles heel is that he is not a details man. The devil, however, is in the detail.
I believe we (Londoners) can take him down.
Prague - is this the primary object of your research. You have done great work on on the Olympic Stadium scandal but if the object is simply to bring Boris down you have lost quite a bit of respect from me,
But you must know that isn't simply the objective just from Prague's previous posts. Prague will probably have learned things that suggest to him the man needs bringing down I suspect.
He, or the reporter, are confusing two different options. There is a northern crossing which would be around 14 miles, but it would require extensive road developments to link it up with any useful roads. It ends up more expensive than the 24 mile bridge.
Of course, the 24 mile bridge needs to go over the UKs largest offshore chemical and conventional munitions dump, so it’s a bit risky.
Confirmed today that the project wasted £43m of public cash.
Info from The Times
An investigation into the Garden Bridge Trust’s finances showed that the organisation spent almost £418,000 hosting a fundraising dinner in Battersea, southwest London, to drum up support for the project.
Documents released by Transport for London (TfL) show that just over £1.7 million was spent on salaries for executive staff, almost £2.2 million on consultants, £2.3 million in legal fees, £9.5 million on designers and £161,400 building a website.
The charity was made to pay back a series of private donations after pulling the plug on the project in late 2017. It repaid £3,200 to a donor who won a charity auction to play table tennis with Mr Johnson, which never happened.
A donation of almost £2.3 million was repaid to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charity established by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York. Another donor who was repaid £33,000 wrote to the charity to say that it was the “most bogus and irresponsible shambles I have ever had the misfortune to get involved in”, the documents show.
After all the cockups Boris Johnson has made as London Mayor, he
walks about without taking any responsibility, when in my opinion he shouldn't be allowed in a
public office post again.
Comments
That cost £10 billion (almost certainly more) and lasted 4 weeks.
The Garden Bridge costs 200x less and will last a 100 years!!
It's a no brainer for me. Don't forget the tourist receipts will probably pay for it anyway.
Not to mention it's the kind of
gimmickattraction that is genuinely different and would attract quite a lot of visitors in my opinion. I think in that regard, it has a few similarities with another BoJo special - the Cable Car - albeit with a better location.Was it practical? I'm not too sure. Was it a justifiable expense? Nah..
The objective is to expose what has happened and then to hold to account those responsible. The OSC fully acknowledges that the whole OS story goes way back beyond Johnson. The architect Steve Lawrence, who works with us, has quite gobsmacking details about the first plan he worked on, whereby McAlpine would have both built and operated the stadium, therefore at no cost to the taxpayer. The trail on this one goes cold when it ends up on the desk of Tony Blair.
We've concentrated on the contract between LLDC and West Ham, and I personally got involved because those terms represent a commercial threat to our club. They are also unfair to other London clubs, and a bad deal for all taxpayers. That's why there is a coalition. Johnson signed off this contract. He was the head of the LLDC, until he resigned himself in late 2015 (after the ICO found in our favour and ordered release of the contract). He then said at the GLA assembly meet, which I attended, that he had no problem with the contract being released, yet he allowed the LLDC to appeal the ICO decision, which meant an 8 month delay, and me going through the adventure of an Information Tribunal.
Johnson did his best to slither away from responsibility for both this and the Garden Bridge, yet if he adheres to the capitalist principles he espouses (and I certainly do), then he is the guy at the top. He signed off on both. He should bear the consequences. Just because he now has a new job where he goes round the world insulting other countries, it does not mean he shouldn't be held to account for shit in London which is only starting to emerge, but which happened on his watch.
The LLDC has a second boss. Sir Robin Wales of Newham. We are after him too. He of course is of the Labour tribe. He does not have the same vaulting ambition as Johnson, but when it comes to the OS, he is 35% guilty.
He and Johnson have two things in common.
1. They are both ****s.
2. We are going to nail them both.
No mate, I have not, is it something easily posted here?
1. The idea was brought to Boris's attention in a letter from Joanna Lumley in 2012 (in which she thanked him "for the tulips" - whatever that means), introducing Thomas Heatherwick's idea for a pedestrian bridge, with a garden.
2. Johnson liked the idea and spoke to chum George Osborne about it, who suggested he (Johnson) should supply a loan of £30m for the deveopment. Osborne was far keener and persuaded Johnson to make it a grant instead of a loan; and that he would match it with another £30m grant from the Treasury. (Note: if it went ahead, Osborne (or at least the Treasury) would always get some/most/all of his money back, in VAT).
3. Johnson decided this project fell under the auspices of TfL. TfL (rightly) decided that, as the project was reliant on public monies, a contest was required, between competing architects. TfL ran the contest, in early 2013.
4. Thomas Heatherwick's firm, Heatherwick Studio, having already given Johnson the idea for a garden bridge, was one of the (three) firms invited to put forward concept designs, the others being Marks Barfield Architects (designers of the London Eye) and WilksonEyre (designers of countless bridges). (Heatherwick Studio designed the cauldron at the London 2012 Olympic Games and the new version Routemaster).
5. All three firms were invited to submit proposals for a bridge. (Note: the documentation included no mention of it being a "garden" bridge. When the two other architect firms were producing designs for a bridge that was not a garden bridge and one was, it is easy to see which of the firms was most liekly to win the bid, when you take into account the fact that Johnson was absolutely wedded to the idea of a garden bridge).
6. The scoring of the competition was... peculiar.
7. One section of scoring was cost. Heatherwick's bid was the most expensive. It was 3 1/2 times as expensive as the second-most expensive, and seven times as expensive as the cheapest.
TfL scored Heatherwick equal-highest in the category of "cost".
8. Another section of scoring was on "Bridge Experience".
- WilkinsonEyre have built several bridges (including Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the Peace Bridge in Londonderry, Media City Footbridge, Gatwick Pier 6 Connector and over 100 bridges for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link).
- Marks Barfield have built several bridges (including Nine Elms to Pimlico Bridge, Tintagel Bridge in Cornwall, the White Horse Bridge at Wembley Stadium).
- Heatherwick Studio have built a 12 metre pedestrian access way, welded together in Sussex and erected in Paddington Bason to span an inlet of the Grand Union Canal.
TfL scored Heatherwick higher than the other two in the category of "bridge experience".
9. In short, it looks like Heatherwick were always going to win this design competition.
10. There was also an engineering competition. In the same way, this was always going to be won by Arup.
11. While the "competitions" were going on, Heatherwick and Arup were also in meetings, frequentlly with Peter Hendy, Boris Johnson, Johnson's Chief of Staff (minutes of which have never been released).
12. TfL has paid £8.4m to Arup. Heatherwick were a sub-consultant to Arup and have been paid c£2.5m.
13. Richard de Cani was the Managing Director of Planning for TfL, scoring the "competitions" that were won by Heatherwisk and Arup. He has since left TfL. And is now Director of Planning, UKMEA at Arup.
14. Isabel Dedring was the Deputy Mayor for Transport, under Boris. She has left that role. And is now Global Transporrt Leader at Arup.
To be clear, I am only reporting what I heard on the radio, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy. But, as the interviewee was Will Hurst, the Managing Editor of the Architects Journal and, as he has been digging into this since 2014, including by means of 25-30 FoE requests, it all seems to be pretty well-founded.
@se9addick @redman . I would like to sheepishly concede that my post last night was written after several lively beers with mates. We cannot, on our own, expect to bring proceedings against politicians. All we can do is show clearly the evidence and where the blame lies. I was encouraged to do that in the last BBC London film but the editing was such that you could blink and miss it.
However I'm told that Sadiq Khan is firmly driven by an agenda to expose the misdemeanours of the Johnson regime; Khan, too has political ambitions beyond London. We see ourselves as preparing some of the bullets which Khan can fire. Then of course we have to hope and pray that Khan will keep himself clean. So far, I must say I am pretty impressed, although my Twitter feed has any number of black cab drivers who are not.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/29/joanna-lumley-attacks-sadiq-khans-scrapping-of-thames-garden-bridge?CMP=fb_gu
“There was so much negativity about this £60m of public money,” she said. “All we heard was £60m, £60m, £60m. But . . . it’ll work out at about 32p a person in the UK. It’s not as if we’re stealing bread from people.”
Absolutely laughable. Makes me so angry.
But would it be better use of taxpayers' money? Instead of contributing to the reduction in real poverty in Pakistan, where 1 child in 11 dies before reaching 5 years old; where 12,000 women a year die in childbirth; 12 million children are not schooled; and 60 million people live in abject poverty, we could build the 34th bridge over the Thames and plant 200 more trees to go with the 7 million we have and to replace the dozens that would be cut down to make space for it.
Foe what it's worth, anyone can find out more about how much UK aid is given to Pakistan and what its used for. In the main, it helps fund the Benazir Income Support Protection, using a sophisticated means of delivering cash aid to individuals in most need, in Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, and Khyber-Pakhtonnkhwa. The program also operates in the federally administered regions of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
So, we can see what aid is used for in Pakistan, how much it costs us, where the money comes from and where it goes. None of which is the case with the Garden Bridge project.
There are some people who think that cutting aid to desperately poor individuals in a part of the world riven with anti-western rhetoric and a breeding ground for terrorism and using that to fund an un-needed vanity project in one of the world's richest cities would be a good idea. I don't.
Probably a good idea if she learnt to count too. And what about the minimum three million p.a. upkeep costs?
These celebs really do live in a different world. This is not devastating and shattering as she puts it ... such an overreaction.
Great subject to beat posh people up over though, fill yer boots!
6 months after he wanted a bridge to France.
Of course, the 24 mile bridge needs to go over the UKs largest offshore chemical and conventional munitions dump, so it’s a bit risky.
Info from The Times
An investigation into the Garden Bridge Trust’s finances showed that the organisation spent almost £418,000 hosting a fundraising dinner in Battersea, southwest London, to drum up support for the project.
Documents released by Transport for London (TfL) show that just over £1.7 million was spent on salaries for executive staff, almost £2.2 million on consultants, £2.3 million in legal fees, £9.5 million on designers and £161,400 building a website.
The charity was made to pay back a series of private donations after pulling the plug on the project in late 2017. It repaid £3,200 to a donor who won a charity auction to play table tennis with Mr Johnson, which never happened.
A donation of almost £2.3 million was repaid to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charity established by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York. Another donor who was repaid £33,000 wrote to the charity to say that it was the “most bogus and irresponsible shambles I have ever had the misfortune to get involved in”, the documents show.
After all the cockups Boris Johnson has made as London Mayor, he walks about without taking any responsibility, when in my opinion he shouldn't be allowed in a public office post again.