The meeting last week was presented with figures which showed that the previous Conservative administration spent just £63,000 on maintaining the bridge over two terms up until 2014. I'm not making a party political point but just making it clear that the bridge was neglected - some people in Chiswick would spend more on maintaining their houses over the same period.
Normally if you have a listed asset and you can't afford to maintain it you would sell it but that wasn't an option available to the council. More broadly we can't tolerate bits of our national heritage being lost simply because it wasn't looked after properly.
Therefore it has to be restored but at the moment it is not clear who is going to pay for it. What I have been told is that the most likely solution for the second phase of the project will be that TfL will be given greater leeway to spend money on the bridge avoiding an embarrassment to Andy Burnham of funding an expensive project in that there London. If TfL are being asked to sort it out - it will be reopened to buses and cars. An announcement next year ahead of the Mayoral elections is predicted by some.
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