| Challoner may be right that there is a difficult administrative problem about restoring the Bridge. But that's not the big issue, which is that the cost of doing so is currently estimated at £300 million (a figure which will no doubt escalate as time goes on) and the whole process is likely to take at least a decade. And for what? Contrary to popular belief, the bridge is not closed at all, but is used by 12 to 15 thousand people every day, whether as pedestrians, cyclists, invalid carriages, scooter riders etc. There is no problem with emergency services and people have managed to adapt to the partial closure: the number of vehicles diverted to Putney is small, the majority having diverted to other crossings - or not made the journey at all: an FoI request showed that 40% of the previous motor traffic had ‘evaporated.’ When public money is so tight, spaffing imillions on Hammersmith Bridge makes no sense at all. |