London garden bridge project in jeopardy amid funding row

Lambeth Council have taken a brave step back from the Garden Bridge project as the facts have gradually unravelled in front of them and they don’t like what they see. The leader of the council Lib Peck has written that “serious question marks remain about financing of the scheme. It is also becoming clear that future mayoral support for this scheme is weakening.”
The chairman of the Garden Bridge Trust, wealthy banker Mervyn Davies, is apparently appalled by the ‘sudden u-turn’ after being “so far down the road on fundraising and planning” but this highlights the arrogance of a man who thinks he has the right to play with public money. And it’s not a u-turn at all; it’s simply common sense prevailing.
Not even half of the 46 planning conditions have been met or discharged before construction can begin, yet the Garden Bridge Trust have swallowed up public funds by ploughing ahead with preliminary drilling into the Thames and splashing out on massive PR events including a fundraising dinner at Harrods.
Ex-Heatherwick Studios PR employee Bee Emmott, who is now the Director of the Garden Bridge Trust, was quick to protest and confirm that they had used up much of the public funds from TfL over the past couple of years, something that the Garden Bridge Trust has avoided admitting to, until now.
We would like to point out to them that they had better stop wasting even more millions of pounds of public money before they end up on the top of the pile of the most loathed and unwanted projects in London; however A Folly For London has demonstrated that they are probably already there: http://www.afollyforlondon.co.uk/
The Guardian reports in more detail here http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/24/london-garden-bridge-project-in-jeopardy-amid-funding-row