Garden Bridge to undergo full judicial review

As I think Goldsmith could win this is depressing news if you are in London and a tax payer in general

Rachel Humphreys @rachel_hump

Zac Goldsmith tells @LBC he backs the Garden Bridge but admits he hasn't looked at all the details yet "instinctively I like it" #LBCdebate

RoadCC wrote:

Joanna Lumley says that she is the person responsible for the decision to exclude cyclists from the proposed Garden Bridge, arguing that their presence would prevent it from being ‘a peaceful place to walk’

Really? Why did she explicitly want cycle tracks included then?

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-02-04/handwritten-note-from-joanna-l...

I hope the project dies on it's arse.

I like gardens and I like bridges, they both have a purpose. Neither has anything to do with the other. Which loonies decided a "garden bridge" was needed and then made such a ham-fisted plan for making it happen?
The whole thing should have been laughed out at the planning application stage.

£175M for that ??? Jeez I knew the idea was mad and corrupt but not that much ...

I do hope this doesn't get built. If it did it would become a privately owned bridge funded by the tax-payer, which is just plain wrong, even before the lost views, lack of access to cyclists and groups etc.

The article mentions the contrast between the lack of utility of the 'urban parsley' garnished 'Garden' Bridge, and the potential benefits (to non-motorists) of the proposed new bridge at Nine Elms.

One contrast which is not mentioned is the typically appalling attitude of Westminster council. They approved the proposal for a publicly-funded, privately owned space in the form of the 'Garden' Bridge (hey, I guess it doesn't wreck the views on THEIR side of the river), but are trying to block the much more useful Nine Elms bridge - wouldn't want those riff-raff non-drivers to have easier access to their turf, eh?

https://labourwestminster.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/westminster-labour-an...

Incidentally, there is a crowd-funding page set up for anyone interested to chip in for the costs of the judicial review:

http://www.everyclick.com/tcos

Hope the project folds when Boris leaves as Mayor. Dreadful project, in a place well served by bridges, when there's a crying need for bridges upstream and downstream. Privatises a bit of the river for corporate jollies, effectively.

And the absolutely worst bit for me, is that it will block the freely available view of the City from Waterloo Bridge, celebrated several times by Canaletto and by Wordsworth:

EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

That view is now going to be the damned 'Garden Bridge', for which you'll have to book a ticket to use. Another piece of useless expensive infrastructure like Boris's Dangleway.

The sooner this project dies the better IMO.

I like the idea of the garden bridge. I just don't like it being privately-owned, especially not when being in-part publicly funded, and access to it being privately controlled.

It is also crazy, in this day and age, to deliberately design major transport infrastructure to exclude cyclists. They just need to make it wide enough to include a separate cycle lane on one side or the other.

Now all we need to do is tie the Garden Bridge Trust up in the courts until the end of the year and the whole project dies a natural death.

Not counting chickens yet but I'm allowing myself to have a warm glow!

Even without the judicial review, it looks like they're really struggling to raise the construction costs. Given that there is now a notable public backlash against the project, the corporate sponsors that they needed seem to be backing off.