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Better ways to spend the garden bridge cash | Letters

An artist’s impression of the now cancelled garden bridge across the Thames
An artist’s impression of the now cancelled garden bridge across the Thames. Photograph: Heatherwick Studio/PA

The proposed garden bridge across the Thames was bound to fail as soon as Zac Goldsmith lost to Sadiq Khan, given that the project never had the support of a majority of the 25-member London assembly (Recriminations fly after garden bridge cancelled, 15 August). The parties opposed to the scheme, with 16 members of the assembly between them, were one seat short of the two-thirds super majority required to stop Boris Johnson and George Osborne frittering the best part of £52m, which had the support of only nine Conservative members. Ultimately, the origins of this fiasco lies with the Blairite fixation with experimenting with directly elected local potentates, rather than properly constituted English regional assemblies and the single transferable vote for local elections.
David Nowell
New Barnet, Hertfordshire

• Peterborough Civic Society, along with the local newspaper and residents, has been campaigning for a new city centre cycle/footbridge across the city’s river Nene. Our city council has said that it cannot currently afford the £2.5m necessary for the project. This figure pales into insignificance when compared with the £37m of public money wasted on the now abandoned Thames garden bridge. I wonder if Joanna Lumley and chums could just check down the back of their sofas and, if any loose change turns up, please chuck it our way.
Toby Wood
Vice-chairman, Peterborough Civic Society

• So the Hetherwick-Lumley floral bridge project has collapsed after spending £37m – on what? Meanwhile, on London and Westminster Bridges, sterile steel blocks have appeared after terrorist attacks to stop future vehicle rampages. It would be more pleasing to have planters instead, with trees, shrubs and flowers lining London’s bridges. These would bring more greenery to all the bridges and please lots of people who walk across the Thames every day. The cost would be less than £10m, a green bargain.
Prof LJS Lesley
Liverpool

• The London garden bridge idea should have been rejected long ago. It has been said for at least 40 years that if a bridge needs to be built, London would be helped more if the north circular road were linked to the south circular at Woolwich. This would relieve a considerable amount of traffic from areas closer to the centre of London and daily congestion and delays around the Blackwall tunnel. When will a mayor of London grasp this issue rather than coming up with fancy projects of little practical use to London road users?
Jonathan Longstaff
Buxted, East Sussex

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