The luvvies bridge

Basically an architect firm with a Stirling award for a bridge design and a lot of experience with bridge design got knocked back for someone who was relatively unheard of, with no large scale project experience and no experience of designing bridges but had connections with certain people. Wasn't it a friend of Lumley's, might be wrong there but I think it wasn't a friend of Osborne, Cameron or Johnston. For once they're not to blame for cronyism I think.

Tangled Metal wrote:

Basically an architect firm with a Stirling award for a bridge design and a lot of experience with bridge design got knocked back for someone who was relatively unheard of, with no large scale project experience and no experience of designing bridges but had connections with certain people. Wasn't it a friend of Lumley's, might be wrong there but I think it wasn't a friend of Osborne, Cameron or Johnston. For once they're not to blame for cronyism I think.

In fairness Lumley is an associate of Heatherwick so not sure she did anything wrong.

Boris had info dragged out of him by FOI requests which suggests he knew what he was doing was bent.
Osborne went against the rules to OK it.
Cameron personally intervened to hand over taxpayer money despite the civil service writing to him to spell out their issues.

Personally I think it is men of a certain age swooning over Lumley but would still like to see them receive massive fines.

Surrey Commuter wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:

Basically an architect firm with a Stirling award for a bridge design and a lot of experience with bridge design got knocked back for someone who was relatively unheard of, with no large scale project experience and no experience of designing bridges but had connections with certain people. Wasn't it a friend of Lumley's, might be wrong there but I think it wasn't a friend of Osborne, Cameron or Johnston. For once they're not to blame for cronyism I think.

In fairness Lumley is an associate of Heatherwick so not sure she did anything wrong.

Boris had info dragged out of him by FOI requests which suggests he knew what he was doing was bent.
Osborne went against the rules to OK it.
Cameron personally intervened to hand over taxpayer money despite the civil service writing to him to spell out their issues.

Personally I think it is men of a certain age swooning over Lumley but would still like to see them receive massive fines.

To be fair, Heatherwick does have large project experience. Johnson and Lumley go way back. The tender process was at least unfair - Heatherwick & co were allowed to revise their bid, but other teams weren't. The whole thing stinks. Particularly as it was so useless, both as a public garden that was not freely open to the public and as a bridge where one was not needed.

Surrey Commuter wrote:

Surrey Commuter wrote:

orraloon wrote:

Ok. HS2 next?

Maybe get a 2-4-1 deal if you throw in Hinckley Point.

Just blame it all on Sadiq Khan. Who should be given a medal for understanding finance.

Actually we could throw in the Olympic Stadium and the new Routemaster (by famous bus designers Heatherwick) and bang Boris up for 20 years

Forgot to mention the cable car which was meant to break even

which is slightly disingenuous as it does make a profit every year albeit a small profit, but on the whole one off public transport schemes like that, where you cant expand or build it out further, its a bit like those funicular railways or cliff elevators you get in some seaside towns, they rarely make profits but can be extremely useful.