A review will be held to examine the value of the proposed £185 million Garden Bridge project in London, it has been announced.

City Mayor Sadiq Khan revealed on Thursday, 22 September that Dame Margaret Hodge MP, former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, will conduct the inquiry into the proposed pedestrian bridge scheme.

Dame Margaret Hodge will carry out a number of tasks, including examining whether value for money has been achieved from the taxpayers’ contribution to the project. In addition, she will investigate the work of Transport for London (TfL), the Greater London Authority (GLA) and other relevant authorities going back to when the project was first proposed.

The review will look in detail at the schemes procurement process and whether required standards have been met around transparency and openness going back to the developments beginnings.

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The multimillion-pound development involves building a pedestrian bridge with areas of planted gardens over the River Thames.

Mayor Khan said with £40m of public money already spent on the project, residents deserve "far more information" about the decisions taken on the project.

"Margaret Hodge is hugely respected for her work scrutinising some of the UK's largest and most high-profile publicly funded bodies," he said.

"There's no better qualified person to get to the bottom of the procurement process around the Garden Bridge, and establish whether Londoners have been getting value for money since the project began.

"I am absolutely clear that no new London taxpayers' funds should be committed to the Garden Bridge, but I’m also determined that the Garden Bridge review helps the project achieve higher standards of accountability and transparency it has so far been lacking."

Dame Margaret Hodge MP added: "I'm delighted to accept Sadiq's offer to look in detail at some of the key decisions made so far around the Garden Bridge. It's not a project that I have previously had an opinion on either for or against, but given the millions of pounds of public money allocated to the project, it is clear that there needs to be far more transparency around how funds are being spent."

(LM)