黑洞社区

Opponents of Heatherwick Studio鈥檚 garden bridge are appealing to communities secretary Eric Pickles to call in the project.

They are threatening to take the scheme to judicial review if he refuses.

The 拢175m project won approval from Westminster on Tuesday night, hot on the heels of Lambeth鈥檚 consent, with only the mayor鈥檚 decision now outstanding.

Michael Ball, director of the Waterloo Community Development Group (WCDG), said: 鈥淏oris will obviously wave it through in coming weeks. But if any scheme anywhere is 鈥榦f more than local concern鈥� (the formula for the secretary of state calling the application in) it is this, affecting four local authorities, in the most delicate of spots, to be enjoyed by the whole world. So we will be urging Pickles to call in the application for a full public inquiry.鈥�

He claimed people living in Lambeth were 鈥渇urious鈥� about the decision, mostly because of the cost they fear will fall on the taxpayer.

Annual maintenance costs of the bridge are estimated at 拢3.5 million, with Westminster council and Middle Temple raising concerns that 鈥渋nsufficient contingencies are in place to secure the maintenance of the bridge in the long term鈥�.

Legal liability has yet to be determined but is likely to fall in part on TfL, which is publicly funded.

Wai-King Cheung, from pressure group Thames Central Open Spaces, said in a statement: 鈥淭he phoney 鈥榩rivate funding鈥� tag is in rags: all Londoners are going to end up paying for the most expensive bridge in the world, with austerity-squeezed budgets having to be slashed further to cover this. Public subsidy for a private bridge 鈥� where鈥檚 the sense in that?鈥�

But a spokeswoman for the Garden Bridge Trust said they were confident the annual running costs could be covered by their fundraising activities, including merchandising and annual galas.

She added that 拢115 of the 拢175 million construction cost was coming from private sources. So far 拢110 million has been pledged, including 拢30 million from TfL and the same again from the Treasury.

Westminster attached 35 conditions to its consent, ranging from a counter-terrorism strategy to pre-approval of paving, glazing and cladding materials.