HBSOS letter to Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander prior to Hammersmith Bridge Task Force meeting Jan 2025

FAO                                                                                                                             7/12/2024

FAO Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP, The Secretary of State for Transport, Department for Transport

Dear Secretary of State,

May I first congratulate you on your appointment as Secretary of State for Transport and introduce myself as the Chair of the Steering Group of Hammersmith Bridge SOS which has sought to raise political awareness and help find solutions for the sad state of Hammersmith Bridge. I know that you were on the Task Force and so will know more about the state of Hammersmith Bridge than most.

On the day that President Macron reopened Notre Dame it is sad to see that the UK still doesn’t have either an agreed viable plan, or funding¹  for the repair of Hammersmith Bridge over five and a half years later. Caroline Pidgeon MBE described this failure in ‘Bridging the Thames’ as ‘damaging our reputation Internationally’ and it is an extraordinary failure of public policy.

LBHF have also confirmed in an FOI response (attached) that they will not know if FosterCOWI is even viable until ‘Q1 2025’ -over four years after it was proposed, as they claim that cores taken from the piers in June/July 2024 will take 6-9months to confirm if the piers can bear the additional weight of FosterCOWI on top of the existing bridge..

I am pleased to see that the Task Force are reconvening on 30^th Jan and we would ask you to consider the following:

1.        Urgently ask LBHF to complete their analysis of the viability of Foster COWI and circulate results prior to the 30th Jan Task Force meeting

2.      What is the status of DfT consideration and approval of the LBHF business Plan?

3.      Revisit the costs of a ‘standard repair’ and footbridge. Foster Cowi should enable resumption of buses within 2 years of a decision to proceed, but will require periods of complete closure of the bridge to pedestrians – isolating Barnes from 4 tube lines, and requires huge amounts more steel (4x more expensive due to Ukraine), than a standard repair with independent and reusable footbridge. Foster COWI last budgeted at £250m but LBHF have no updated costs for the original £110m ‘standard repair with a separate footbridge.

4.      Consider removing the bridge from LBHF control as it is clear that LBHF are not managing the process effectively, perhaps into TfL control with binding progress requirements.

Finally, we have heard that a TfL or DfT report into London’s traffic and bridge capacity undertaken in 2023 or 2024 stated that London urgently needs two additional bridges opened to traffic – Hammersmith Bridge and a new road bridge. Please can you treat this letter as a FOI request to TfL / DfT see that report.

I am only too aware that there will be many demands on your time and very large demands on your Department’s budget, but I very much hope that you will look at the failure to restore road connections in this part of London and establish a strategy for the Bridge’s full restoration to traffic as has been promised.

Best Regards,

Chair, Hammersmith Bridge SOS Steering Group

Cc sarah.olney.mp@parliament.uk; fleur.anderson.mp@parliament.uk; slaughtera@parliament.uk

1. whilst the previous Government agreed ‘in principle’ that TfL, DfT and LBHF would pay 1/3 each, LBHF have stated that could only happen if a toll is agreed to reimburse LBHF (latest estimate £8.50 per journey). Funding is clearly not in place as Parliament has not approved such a toll, the Mayor of London objects to a toll, the LBHF business Plan remains unagreed, and no MOU has been signed.