[Closed] Garden Bridge scrapped.

Joanna Lumleys campaign expenses?

Can we not bill Borris Johnson?

That's an insane amount of money

Iirc cyclists weren't allowed on it too

Could somebody explain how they have managed to squander £37.4 million

Consultants!

This whole thing has been a farcical vanity project from the word go.

And in my opinion it stands more than anything as a great big two fingers to the rest of the country from London

Austerity? What austerity? We might be closing all your libraries in the provinces that we clearly don't give a shit about, But at the same time we're going to spank millions of public money on this pointless vanity project, and we're going to use your money to do it, because... well... its London, and we're just soooooooooo much more important than you. And we want a bridge with some flowers on, so you can all just **** off!

Message received loud and clear!

Much like HS2 having spent over £1 billion so far and not an inch of track having been laid.

It's really easy to spend these huge amounts when it's someone else's money you're spending.

The thing about capitalism, you soon run out of other people's money.

Complete vanity project - the fact that they were proposing to exclude bikes and yet, bikes comprise a considerable proportion of traffic in central London.

What Binners said.

Bunch of self important arseholes.

Just think of the income tax take on those astronomical consultancy fees though..
Not being offshored in the Caymans, honest mate

Yes, exactly[b] binners[/b]; I can't help thinking that a tiny percentage of that money would have kept my local anti-natal unit open.

[b]@kimbers[/b] - misread your post as "Can we not [i]kill[/i] Boris Johnson?" and thought 'seems a little harsh, but not altogether unreasonable'!

local anti-natal unit open

I think (hope!) you mean antenatal!

^^LOL!^^ Yes.

And in my opinion it stands more than anything as a great big two fingers to the rest of the country from London

Excellent news, stupid vanity project glad someone had the balls to cancel it usually these things just keeps rolling on - in other news Mrs Mays vanity/diversionary project is going to cost the country about £100m 👿

Much like HS2 having spent over £1 billion so far and not an inch of track having been laid.

I love this public perception that engineering has.

[soapbox]

That the guy/girl in the orange jumpsuit and hardhat is the only one on the project that actually needs to be paid and just turns up at a station in NW London some day in 2018 and starts laying track in the general direction of Birmingham and hoping for the best.

The public will then moan that even they're paid too much because they 'only' works 4 hours a day as they're on a night shift so can't start work until the line is made safe after the last train and has to finish early enough that the line can be handed back before the fist commuter train.

And then we wonder why kids in China are so much more enthused about STEM subjects when that's the public opinion over here......

[/soapbox]

Don't worry your average Londoner would much rather have seen the money spent on something else.

Especially as it was my even going to be fully open to the public

The thing about capitalism, you soon run out of other people's money.

I think you'll find that's Communism.

I think (hope!) you mean antenatal!

He really meant Aunty Natelie.

And in my opinion it stands more than anything as a great big two fingers to the rest of the country from London

What makes you think the majority of Londoners wanted it?

Makes The Circuit Of Wales squandering of public money a mere drop in the ocean!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39706499

What makes you think the majority of Londoners wanted it?

I must have missed him saying that....

Another £10 million because we've underwritten cancellation fees too. Money for nothing...

I actually really liked the [i]idea[/i] but as time went on it got more and more broken. Pretty much no part of it makes any sense now and the more you look, the dodgier it gets. Of course Boris'll get away scot free...

For all of those who wish to slag London off....

Most of us thought the idea was bollox too...

Slag off those who've proffed from the debacle but bloody well leave us Londoners, the normal folk who live here who are remarkably similar to you, out of your lazy stereotyping.

Save your venom for those who deserve it!

Another thing that is a bit puzzling is the fuzzy boundary between public and private property. If the thing had been built, would it have been "public" in any sense, despite the use of our cash?

I have recently been trying to organise a photo event in London, and discovered that many of the places I imagined to be "public property" are in fact owned by City of London Corporation, and patrolled by rentacops who prevent photography on the grounds that it is "private land".

It seems to me that we have sleepwalked into a situation where what we thought of as "ours" has been sold from under our feet. Soon we will have to pay Oxygen Plc for permission to breathe.

I think you'll find that's Communism.

I think you'll find a large whooshing noise above your head 🙂

Excellent news, total waste of money.

My worry is Kahn is cosying up to the lefty Paris neighbour over "environmental" changes she is making which have been a disaster - digging up roads and replacing them with flower pots. Result = massive traffic jams and more pollution (some of it in neighbouring mayor's districts so she doesn't care). Businesses suffering as people don't bother to drive into Paris for dinner.

Also for those complaining about cancellation fees this is same issue the Tories faced over the Millenium Dome. They couldn't cancel it due to contracts signed by Labour.

@thisisnotaspoon 🙂

lefty Paris neighbour over "environmental" changes she is making

Interesting that concern for the environment is seen as a "lefty" issue. Does that mean that the fascists have plainly confirmed that money trumps (pun sort-of intended) health?

I love this public perception that engineering has.

My comments were nothing to do with a perception of engineering. I realise that there's a huge amount of work goes on with projects like this before anything appears.
My comment was more about the amount of money that's being poured into a project which will, in my opinion, be a colossal waste of money.

Slag off those who've proffed from the debacle but bloody well leave us Londoners, the normal folk who live here who are remarkably similar to you, out of your lazy stereotyping.

Save your venom for those who deserve it!

put your handbag away love

DrJ - Member

Another thing that is a bit puzzling is the fuzzy boundary between public and private property. If the thing had been built, would it have been "public" in any sense, despite the use of our cash?

To focus the mind here, remember that much of the public money came from the Department of Transport. It's as much a public space as it is a transport link.

Who needs public libraries when the money can be better pissed away on the non supply of an aquatic allotment?

Bury is cutting 10 of its 14 libraries and now has exactly zero park rangers.

DrJ - Member
I think you'll find that's Communism.
I think you'll find a large whooshing noise above your head

To be a pedant, it's Socialism, but yeah... Whoosh!

Much like HS2 having spent over £1 billion so far and not an inch of track having been laid.

I love this public perception that engineering has.

[soapbox]

That the guy/girl in the orange jumpsuit and hardhat is the only one on the project that actually needs to be paid and just turns up at a station in NW London some day in 2018 and starts laying track in the general direction of Birmingham and hoping for the best.

The public will then moan that even they're paid too much because they 'only' works 4 hours a day as they're on a night shift so can't start work until the line is made safe after the last train and has to finish early enough that the line can be handed back before the fist commuter train.

And then we wonder why kids in China are so much more enthused about STEM subjects when that's the public opinion over here......

[/soapbox]

+1 - totally agree.

I love this public perception that engineering has.

I get that professional people need paying good money to sort things out (I'm a lawyer, I'm not averse to charging people five hundred quid for an hour's work that'll). I still find the idea of 37 [b]milllion[/b] quid for thinking about building a bridge [i]fairly[/i] mind-boggling.

Anyone got a rough breakdown of where all that money goes?

...........I'm a lawyer, I'm not averse to charging people five hundred quid for an hour's work...................

Anyone got a rough breakdown of where all that money goes?

I think I took home £15 for every £115 the client got billed for my time on my last project. So that's ~70 engineers for 2 years? That does seem a lot for engineering a bridge. So someones obviously made some profit.

You'd have to do surveys etc, have core samples of the riverbed taken etc which probably weren't cheap, but even so.

And lawyers. It's was probably 74,000 hours of lawyers at £500/hour and an engineer at the end saying "you want to put trees on a bridge? That'll never work" and then it gets canceled.

In fairness there's **** all to do in London. A garden bridge would have made it worthwhile to visit.

In fairness there's **** all to do in London. A garden bridge would have made it worthwhile to visit.

Mehhhhhh.........
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_London

It's was probably 74,000 hours of lawyers at £500/hour and an engineer at the end...

Probably disturbingly accurate. 🙂

We might be closing all your libraries in the provinces that we clearly don't give a shit about,

The public libraries act was passed in 1850 and the first library opened in Manchester in 1852. At that time it's estimated 20% of children in Manchester died before their 5th birthday. Better go and firebomb those libraries binners 🙂

And yes this bridge is utter madness, but if it had of been built in 150 years no one would think about what it had really cost. The real cost of anything is not measured in money but in what you don't do as a result of what you have done.

bodgy - Member 
Could somebody explain how they have managed to squander £37.4 million (MILLION!!) of public funds

That's money going to businesses who pay wages and suppliers (inc other consultants, architects etc) who are paying wages, to employees and contractors who pay taxes, and buy things with more taxes which go to companies who pay those taxes back to... the government and back into public funds.

Okay, only a percentage of the £37.4 million as much of it goes to profit and sits in people's accounts for years, but then they'll eventually buy things with it, which pays for salaries, taxes, etc

However I do agree it seemed a waste of a project, but then so are many things and at least it's not yet more luxury housing for foreign investors and is still more useful than HS2.

thisisnotaspoon - Member

In fairness there's **** all to do in London. A garden bridge would have made it worthwhile to visit.

Mehhhhhh.........
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_London

Ok fair enough but there's no big parks or zoos or any type of outside things to do are there?

For the removal of doubt 😉 and one for my other post 😉