Yahoo Finance Grant Shapps ‘must act on embarrassing Hammersmith Bridge closure’
Grant Shapps made a pledge last September to “take control” of the project
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The Government will come under pressure today to fund the reopening of Hammersmith Bridge as it was told the two-year closure had become an “international embarrassment”.
London MPs are this evening expected to demand that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps honours a pledge from last September to “take control” of the project and reopen the 134-year-old bridge.
Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney who secured the Commons debate, said: “It can’t be left to rot. It’s an international embarrassment.”
It came as Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, who appeared alongside Mr Shapps last September as they pledged to solve the bridge closure fiasco, said he would scrap the £1.55 fare to use a temporary ferry — that is due to start operating at the end of the summer — if elected to City Hall on May 6.
Mr Bailey also vowed to open a temporary road bridge, followed by the full reopening of the Grade II* listed bridge, with no tolls to use either crossing.
This is in contrast with an expected £3 levy that motorists would face to use a “double decker” bridge suggested by Hammersmith and Fulham council as a way of reopening the crossing in summer next year, four years ahead of the main repair schedule.
Ms Anderson said many of the 4,000 vehicles a day that crossed Hammersmith Bridge were diverting across Putney Bridge, worsening pollution in Upper Richmond Road and in Putney High Street, one of the capital’s worst toxic air hotspots.
She said there was widespread “frustration” at the lack of progress on the Department for Transport striking a funding deal with Hammersmith and Fulham council, which owns the bridge, and Transport for London. She feared it was an example of London losing out to the North in government support.
“The impact it’s having on people’s lives is enormous. It needs to be tackled urgently. I’m really frustrated at the lack of action on funding and especially the ‘taskforce’ led by Baroness Vere,” she said. “It’s a major transport infrastructure route. It’s also a heritage project. It costs far more than any other [Thames] bridge. It’s not fair that Hammersmith and Fulham council are being told they have to put up 50 per cent of the funding.
“I’m all in favour of reducing car use but we can’t do it like this. You have to put in place ways people can reduce their car use and alternative ways to travel ... rather than expecting people to give up their transport needs.”
The council’s double-decker proposal would cost about £100 million — about £41 million cheaper than the current estimates for fully repairing the existing cast-iron bridge.
It proposed funding the repairs through the road charge, which would be the first levy on crossing the Thames in London.
The Department for Transport was approached for comment.
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Evening Standard Comment: Hammersmith Bridge closure has become a national embarassment
