Former London mayor and current foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been legally summoned to appear before a City Hall committee to answer questions on the failed Garden Bridge project.
The London Assembly’s GLA Oversight Committee voted last week to issue a letter requiring Johnson to attend a meeting on 22 February.
Committee chair Len Duvall AM noted that whereas Dame Margaret Hodge was unable to compel Boris Johnson to cooperate with her review of the Garden Bridge, the London Assembly does have the right to insist that past mayors face its questions.
As mayor, Johnson was questioned about the bridge by the same committee in December 2015.
The much-maligned project was first mooted in 2012 with a proposed completion date of 2018, taking just 32 months to construct. However, it ran into a number of delays over the years due to cost, ownership and public access.
The bridge would have linked Temple station on the north bank of the Thames with the South Bank and was designed by Thomas Heatherwick with a garden and planting by Dan Pearson Studio.
Lea Duvall, chair of the GLA Oversight Committee, said: “When Margaret Hodge appeared before us and explained that Boris Johnson did not participate in her review of the Garden Bridge project, we realised that an important part of the story was not being made public. Dame Margaret did not have the power to formally request the former mayor to give evidence, however the Assembly does have that statutory power.
“£37m of transport finance was allocated to a project which seemed to bypass proper appraisal, procurement procedures were not followed and the promised money from the Garden Bridge Trust did not materialise – leaving the taxpayer to pick up the bill.
“So I think it’s only right that Boris gives us his side of the story. I know that Londoners are still very interested to know how the whole project got so far down the track, before the plug was pulled.”
