Hammersmith Bridge

Question

15:07:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to re-open Hammersmith Bridge to motor traffic.

My Lords, my department is working with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Transport for London on the closure of Hammersmith Bridge to traffic. The Government have provided the borough with almost £13 million of funding to date, and my honourable friend the Minister for Local Transport will reconvene the Hammersmith Bridge taskforce in the new year.

I thank the Minister. It is good news that the taskforce is meeting on 30 January, but of course it does raise the question of why it has not met for more than three years. Hammersmith Bridge is a major entry point into London, and hundreds of thousands of commuters have been very badly inconvenienced for more than five years. During that time, Notre Dame was gutted by fire and rebuilt. The other bit of good news is that this is a project to be considered in the spring spending review. Will the Minister use all his extensive experience and efforts to ensure that this project is adopted? At the moment, it is a stain on our national reputation as a country with the capacity and the will to get things done.

The noble and right reverend Lord would not expect me to account for the time elapsed since the taskforce last met and July. It is now going to meet, and the good news is that the stabilisation work, which has been beset by delays and cost increases due to skill scarcity and inflation, should be finished by April 2025. The bridge is an iconic structure—perhaps not as iconic as Notre Dame, but it is certainly useful locally. It was built in 1887 from wrought iron; it has been bombed twice by the IRA, has not been properly maintained for decades, and nearly fell down five years ago. Some noble Lords know that I can drive a public service vehicle. I must be the only person here who has driven one over Hammersmith Bridge in traffic, and I can tell noble Lords that the forward motion of the bus was accompanied by the lateral motion of the bridge —and the vertical motion of the bridge. It is the only time driving a bus I have nearly felt seasick.

My Lords, as a resident of Hammersmith and Fulham I would like to say that, although there has been some inconvenience, there has also been much better air quality. I am interested in what the Minister has to say about the possibility of an electric shuttle service running across the bridge, to enable those who are unable to walk across it to cross with relative ease. That would be much better for the air quality for those of us in Barnes and Hammersmith and Fulham, and could be done reasonably quickly.

It is a matter for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and indeed for the neighbouring borough on the south side, of which I declare that I am a resident, to decide what they want to do with the bridge. The stabilisation work has stopped it from literally collapsing, but the capacity of the bridge to take traffic as well as pedestrians and cyclists will cost a lot more money, and the boroughs will have to work with Transport for London to decide how the bridge is going to be used. The other really important feature of the bridge is that at least once a year it is absolutely full of pedestrians. Therefore, a job that does not allow it to bear the weight of pedestrians for the boat race and other things will not be very satisfactory. However, it is for the boroughs to decide how to deal with that.

My Lords, this is a sorry saga. The impact of the closure is significant for south-west London, particularly the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. When will a full economic and environmental evaluation be carried out on the effect of the bridge’s closure for this whole area?

As I say, it is primarily for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which has the good fortune—or bad luck—to own this structure, and for the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south side to decide between them what they want to do with this bridge in the future, bearing in mind the engineering evaluation about what the structure is capable of doing. It was designed and built for horse-drawn traffic; it has never been particularly strong. Therefore, the boroughs need to work with Transport for London to work out to what use it might be put. I agree that there needs to be an economic evaluation of the effects of whatever happens permanently, but first they need to work out what the bridge is capable of doing after it has been stabilised.

My Lords, I was the chair of the Hammersmith Bridge taskforce, alongside the current Transport Secretary, who was also a member. I said that the taskforce would reconvene whenever a project came forward from Hammersmith and Fulham. We have heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, who says that there is some doubt as to whether it really should be reopened from the Hammersmith and Fulham side. I have sensed all along that this is why Hammersmith and Fulham council has been dragging its feet. The Liberal Democrats also cannot claim glory in this. because they are remarkably silent from the south of the river. Can the Minister tell the House whether full, complete and costed proposals have been forthcoming from Hammersmith and Fulham council?

We know what the range of costs for a future renovation of the bridge should be. They are very significant—at least a quarter of a billion pounds. I cannot currently say how detailed that is, but I know that it is the order of magnitude of what would need to be done to move further than just stabilisation, which will be completed, as I say. It must have been quite a burden to both chair and be in those meetings, and I am interested to hear about that. I hope that my honourable friend the Minister for Local Transport, when he reconvenes the taskforce, quickly brings the meeting to a clear understanding of what the bridge is to be used for in the future, and therefore what needs to be done to it in the long term.

My Lords, the Greater London Authority Act explicitly transferred the responsibility previously held by the Government Office for London to fund capital transport projects by the boroughs to the Mayor of London. It is undoubtedly the Mayor of London’s responsibility to provide funding for this. Does the Minister not agree that what we are seeing here is a failure by two Labour-run authorities that, at the expense of members of the public, are engaged in a competition to show who can be more anti-motorist?

I will say two things to the noble Lord. First, the bridge has got into its current state over decades, which have seen various changes of control by the owners, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Secondly, he will know better than most that the level of settlement afforded to the Mayor of London for transport purposes by the previous Government was frankly derisory, and therefore the current Mayor of London has not been able to allocate money to all the things he would like to. We need to establish what the use of the bridge will be in future, which is a matter for the two boroughs. In other circumstances the noble Lord would defend fiercely the right of local authorities in London to decide what to do with their local roads. That has to be established. From that, it can be worked out what to do with the bridge, how much it will cost, how long it will take and, incidentally, who should pay for it.

My Lords, I declare my interest as a Barnes resident. Hammersmith Bridge is a key Thames crossing point for motor traffic in London. Its closure for over five years has greatly increased traffic congestion, delays and pollution around neighbouring bridges in Kew, Chiswick and Putney. Even the idea of a community pedicab service across the bridge has apparently been shelved—although much good it would do for motorists. What reassurance can the Minister give that he will ensure there is at least a plan in place for reopening the bridge to motor traffic before the actual reopening of the far-larger Baltimore harbour bridge, scheduled for 2028? How will he clarify who is responsible for such a plan and how it will be funded?

I am very clear that the bridge is owned by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is that borough’s job as the highway authority for the local road network, together with Richmond upon Thames on the other side, to decide how this bridge should be used. The mayor has responsibility for transport in London; he is part of this discussion, and the department is too, but those boroughs have to decide. They have to look at both how long it has taken and how much it has cost to stabilise the bridge, and decide what that structure is capable of doing in the future. It has never been able to take heavy vehicles of any description and, as I said, latterly it was pretty unsuitable for vehicles of seven and three-quarter tonnes. The boroughs need to decide on that, because the cost of doing it and the time it will take to finish depends on it. It is their collective job to do it, and that is why the taskforce will be reconvened.