Letter – We must focus on key services, not vanity projects
Dear
Editor
Westminster Council
have just approved a “garden bridge” at the cost of £175m to the taxpayer. Not
only is this bridge expensive but it will cost £3.5m in annual maintenance.
Some people have dubbed it “the most expensive footbridge in the
world”.
It
is interesting to see that London Councils can afford to build hundred million
pound infrastructure projects primarily as a piece of art. Here in the North
East we have run down railways with cattle trucks for trains, inadequate,
overcrowded roads and a health system that is being gradually decimated due to
lack of funds. Many Councils here couldn’t afford to build a footbridge for
practical reasons, never mind artistic ones. Perhaps the people of London could
make do with a simply functional new footbridge and the extra (estimated at
around 5-10 times what was necessary) funding could be redistributed around the
country to help areas where the infrastructure doesn’t even meet the most basic
of requirements.
I
for one would welcome a large investment into our local railways, even if
it didn’t quite meet the artistic tastes of Westminster Council.
Jonathan
Arnott MEP
UKIP,
North East
