The Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce to reopen the key link across the Thames is being recovened, MPs have been told.
Dame Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, told the Commons Public Accounts Committee that local transport minister Simon Lightwood would join it, with a date being sought for it to meet, according to Yahoo News.
The task force was set up in September 2020 to get Hammersmith Bridge reopened “as speedily as possible”.
At the time, then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, stressed Londoners had “waited too long” for the now 138-year-old bridge to be repaired.
The Department for Transport has provided £13 million so exploratory and stabilisation work can be done to the crossing, said the Yahoo News report.
The bridge, which links Hammersmith and Barnes, first closed in April 2019 to vehicles after cracks were found in its cast iron structure.
Appearing before the committtee, Dame Bernadette said: “The key thing to say is that ministers have decided to reconvene now the Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce recognising how important an issue this is to the residents of the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
“Decisions on further funding will now need to be taken in the context of the next phase of the Spending Review.”
She added that Hammersmith and Fulham council had explored how it could raise a third of the funding needed, with the other third coming from Transport for London, and a third from central Government.
But a financial package has not been agreed, with the repair bill put at £250 million or more.
“This government will now need to take a view,” the top civil servant added.
Officials confirmed that London is not eligible to bid for funding from the Major Road Programme and Large Local Majors Programmes, which can provide 85 per cent of finance for projects, but it has not been launched since 2019.
“We will need to reflect with this Government on what the appropriate funding mechanism might be,” added Dame Bernadette.
Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown stressed the importance of getting the bridge finally fixed after so many years.
“Having Hammersmith Bridge not working does cause considerable disruption in South West London so you can expect the committee to keep an eye on that,” he told the senior Department for Transport officials.
