07/04/2017 London News

strengthen the country's air defence systems. That is all from us. It is

The battle over baby Charlie at the High Court -

his parents challenge medical wisdom to turn off life support.

I'll be finding out how scientists are using this machine to capture

culturally significant memories of our capital.

And the magic of the Easter holidays -

we check out what else is on offer here in the capital.

Good evening, welcome to the programme with me, Riz Lateef.

First tonight - it's cost the taxpayer nearly ?40 million,

but today, a damning report has called for the Garden Bridge

The review, ordered by the Mayor, says the costs to build a new

river crossing are escalating out of control, that the purpose

of the bridge remains unclear and that process to find

the architects was "not open, fair or competitive".

The future of the scheme is now under serious doubt,

as our transport correspondent Tom Edwards reports.

This is where the Garden Bridge was meant to be built,

stretching from Temple to the South Bank.

Today, though, another blow to a project under fire.

A review says it's not value for money.

Don't put another penny of London ratepayers' money,

or British taxpayers' money, into this project.

I know that money has been lost, but I would cut your losses now,

because there are too many risks, there are too many uncertainties,

and there is no clarity to me that the money can be raised

The bridge was meant to be an oasis of calm above the Thames,

with ?60 million coming from the taxpayer.

including the previous Mayor, Boris Johnson

and the then Chancellor, George Osborne.

Procurement, the costs, the previous Mayor, Deputy Mayor,

TfL officials, are all criticised in this withering report.

It also reveals that the cost of the Garden Bridge could now

and there is a shortfall of ?70 million.

It says the trust's finances are in a precarious state.

Opponents always said the Garden Bridge was in the wrong place,

We think it's a very damning report, it's not looking good

for the Garden Bridge Trust, it would be very difficult for them

to pull something out of the hat after this,

and we think that Boris has left us with the ultimate frippery

and Sadiq Khan has it in his power to refuse the guarantee.

Well, I think it is hugely damning and it shows what many of us

felt for a long time, that all the money that's been

spent on this project has not been well spent,

and that it's not good value for public money, and quite frankly,

if you read the thorough report that's been done,

the Mayor of London has to kill off this project now and stop throwing

The report also says that the procurement of the bridge

was not open or fair and recommends the project should be cancelled,

even though it could cost the taxpayer up to ?60 million.

Others say that this whole review process is nothing more

The Garden Bridge Trust says it is more determined than ever

The big question now is, what will the Mayor do -

Tom, you have been following the Garden Bridge's controversial

journey. What is your view on whether it will get built? Well, I

suspect what it will come down to in the end is money. This project needs

private donors and at the moment, they are staying away. There has

been a lot of bad luck and bad publicity and what is is death by a

thousand reviews, and the criticisms keep on coming. Tonight we have had

a very damning statement from the architects who created the London

Eye behind me, extremely damning words from them, saying the

competition did not smell right from the start, we were just there to

make up the numbers, we feel deeply embarrassed to be used in this way

by a publicly accountable body, they go on. TfL continues to be in

denial, all of this extremely damning for Transport For London,

and it leaves the current Mayor with a political problem.

Politicians like to leave their mark. Boris Johnson light River

crossings. This one in East London did at least get off the ground. The

bigger challenge for the Garden Bridge may yet challenge his legacy.

-- tarnish. At the time, he did not like being questioned about the way

he handled it. We are getting to the bottom of why rules which is the

jurors are important and why you need to do your job under you have

said... I think we need to get on and build this bridge. This whole

thing is a load of Cobblers. It is all political. You just cannot bear

the idea that a great project is going ahead. That is what this is

all about. A load of Cobblers. He has now got a new job, being in

Greece yesterday and refusing to comment on the Garden Bridge today.

He also would not talk to Margaret Hodge's enquiry. Boris refused to

come and talk to me and I regret that because it was his project and

he has to take responsibility for it. Deciding whether the bridge goes

ahead now bolster the man who replaced Boris Johnson. Sadiq Khan

has backed the idea of the bridge but said he will not put any more

public money into it. But after asking Margaret Hodge to review the

project in September, three months later he said -- sent this e-mail.

Our findings are in fact pretty much the opposite, putting the ball

firmly in the Mayor's court. I based my conclusions and recommendations

on all the facts that were put before Matt. I have a bit of

experience in this field, I have been doing it for 40 years and I

have five years chairing the Public Accounts Committee so I think I have

done a fair and honest and direct bit of work. It is now over to the

Mayor to do his. He would not be interviewed today but we are told he

will study the review carefully before responding in full before

deciding if this is as close as we will get to a Garden Bridge.

The differing views on what Brexit could mean for London's reputation

The mother of a baby boy with a rare genetic condition has pleaded

with a judge at the High Court to give the little boy

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London think it is time

to stop providing life support treatment to baby Charlie Gard.

Alex Bushill has been following the case and joins me now.

A truly heartbreaking case. It certainly is. It is worth

remembering that there are only 16 other children anywhere in the world

who have the same condition as Charlie. It is a rare form of

mitochondrial disease that has left him with progressive muscle failure

and profound brain damage. Today, we saw his parents from Hounslow

arriving at the High Court, their job today was to try and persuade a

High Court judge to allow them to take their child to America for what

is experimental and completely unproven treatment. That is directly

against the wishes of the doctors at Great Ormond Street. He has been

been looked after by them and they have come to the view that there is

nothing more they can do for him and it would ease the suffering to turn

off the life-support. They say his condition is untreatable. What was

significant about today was, we heard from this legally appointed

court guardian, their job is to look directly at what is in the best

interests of Charlie, that is aside from interests of the parents or the

doctors, and crucially today, they said, or she, rather, the Guardian

said the doctors and Great Ormond Street were right, the life-support

should be turned off because to do otherwise is purely prolonging the

process of dying. On this matter treatment on America, they said that

would only be experimental, with no real prospect of improving Charlie's

quality of life. In short, it would be at best futile and actually at

worst could lead to cancerous mutations. I understand there were

emotional scenes in court as baby Charlie's parents addressed the

judge? Very difficult scenes. His mother addressed the High Court

judge and the father was sobbing throughout. She told the High Court

judge this was a chance to let her son live, her words. She said,

Charlie has one shot, one chance of life. Without this treatment,

Charlie's only alternative is death. That was to be her final submission,

what happens now is the judge will go away and we expect a decision on

Tuesday of next week. Difficult and heartbreaking case. Alex, thank you.

As an industry, it is one of London's best

worth nearly ?2 billion to us every year

and generating highly skilled, highly paid jobs.

So how worried should we be that the head of British Architects

is now warning a badly handled Brexit could cost lots

A quick headcount at one of London's biggest architecture firms.

Everybody's from Spain in our office!

They not only build our homes and offices, but architects

could be seen as one of the capital's secret weapons.

The industry is worth ?1.7 billion a year,

that's more than the capital's industrial design, fashion

And it's growing faster than London's economy.

Plus, we sell ?400 million more of our services abroad

But around a quarter of our architects are from the EU,

so what happens when Brexit kicks in?

If we have a hard Brexit and our economy collapses,

we are going to have to look abroad, much more than we do already,

and then if we have taxes imposed on her fees that we don't have

already, it's going to be that much more difficult,

so you can see a sort of vicious circle going on.

Two years ago, the industry's President could not have dreamt

she would be fighting her corner at the Government's table.

If we can't keep the skills that we need here, then

we are going to lose our competitive edge, our innovative edge.

We are going to have practices who perhaps have projects

around the world who will not have the staff.

We are already seeing people change the way they work.

This practice employs fewer than 20 people.

When Brexit gave some companies cold feet about building

from scratch, this lot offered refurbishments instead.

Could you be one of the firms that thrives from uncertainty?

We are a practice that founded in the recession of 2009,

when there was a lot of uncertainty around.

And it feels like that climate exists again now,

post-Brexit, and we have thrived in those situations.

We have worked around the world for centuries, really.

Architects travel to where the work is.

So, we feel quite positive that a lot of work in the States, Canada,

Might be more difficult in Europe, but we worked

But there is a clear enough message from the sector itself -

the people whose job it is to make more lives more liveable say

they might have to look for a new life themselves.

Turning now to the news that the woman who was knocked into

the Thames during the Westminster attack has died.

Among the tributes today to Andreea Cristea,

she was at the happiest time of her life."

Let's cross to Sonja Jessup, who is on Westminster Bridge.

Two weeks on from the attacks, the flowers are pending, some of the

notes are now hard to make out but Londoners and tourists are still

often stopping to read them, to reflect on those who lost their

lives. Among them were hearing today, one more victim, Andreea

Cristea, 31 years old, a Romanian architect. BBC London has been

speaking to her friends and family who have been sharing their memories

with us and sharing their photos pictures they say reflect the young

woman she was, a lot of trouble, she wanted to explore the world. This

was the second time she had travelled to London and it was

supposed to be a dream holiday. She was with her boyfriend, who was

going to ask her to marry him, a proposal that apparently she was

expecting and expected to say yes to. But of course she lost her life

two weeks after being hit by a car driven by Khalid Masood. And you

have spoken to her cousin today? Yes, he was too upset to speak to us

on camera, but he told us that Andreea was at the happiest time of

her life, that she had such huge plans and why she dreamed starting a

family. We also spoke to a family friend

about the difficult time her family are going through and how they are

struggling to come to terms with what happened.

There is going to be a vigil for Andreea on Sunday. It has been

organised by members of the remaining community in London and it

is going to be held at Saint Dunstan in the West Church in Holborn. We

are also hearing talks about the best way to raise money perhaps to

support Andreea's family. Tributes to the fifth victim of a Westminster

attack. Sonja Jessup, thank you. I be around London today, finding

out the fun things to do in the Easter break next week.

-- I have been. And the weekend is looking pretty good, temperatures

are on the rise and a is Van to feel more like June. -- and it is going

to feel. Before that, though,

we all know, don't we, how a smell can evoke memories

of a certain time, But what about capturing

the essence of a book, Well, that's what scientists

at University College London are documenting, as

a way of recording We read them, we learn from them,

some of us even write them. Looks old or new, falling apart or unread.

Here at University College London's Institute of archaeology library is

the largest collection of conservation related books in

London. But it is not just the words written on the pages that are

important. According to scientists, the smell of these books has a

significance that should also be recorded. Smells have a big impact

on our everyday life, how we feel, how we think and even how we behave.

So we started looking into those smells that might have cultural

value to us as a society, and our first challenge was to identify a

smell that we knew people valued, and the smell of old books and

historic libraries appeared as a very clear case. Scientists from

UCL's Institute for sustainable Heritage Park collecting chemicals

on a sensor, which they put into a machine to separate the individual

chemical compounds. These chemicals can be used to recreate that smell

and the future. What do you think of the smell of books? They have a very

particular smell. I think it is lovely. Sort of musty. But it is

really enjoyable. I love old libraries. I was so to eat the stuff

of a book with what you read in the book, it can lead to all sorts of

associations. Always when you get a new book, the new smell, it is part

of the experience. At the moment, smell is rarely recorded. If you go

into a gallery or museum, 100% at the objects communicate with you

visually. You can see the shapes and colours, but you cannot touch them

and you cannot smell them. They are also trawling archives to recreate

the Pope read from a house in the 1700s so that visitors walk in and

are transported back in time. The whole project is not just about

recording smells but also the emotions they evoke.

For the first time since the London 2012 Games, some of

the best gymnasts will be once again competing

Ahead of the World Cup of Gymnastics at the O2,

Emma Jones has been to meet two of the British Olympic stars

who will be taking part, at their Essex club.

Some final training before the main event.

The World Cup of Gymnastics is about finding the best

All Around man and woman, and it's a chance for British

gymnasts to compete at one of London's Olympic venues.

I actually bought my tickets and I was sitting in the crowd

watching, so it's going to be very different for me this time,

competing in the arena, rather than just sitting

The last time we had a comp sort of on home ground

was the World Championships in 2015, in Glasgow.

Yeah, it's really exciting, because I know how big

that was and I think this is going to be ten times bigger,

Brinn and Amy were both part of Britain's most successful ever

Amy won bronze on the floor in Rio last year.

So for me, it's kind of all just a massive blur.

I got a medal and it's just like, what happened?

Such an exciting, dynamic young gymnast...

Brinn was part of the team that narrowly missed out

One of the stars of 2016 was double Olympic Champion Max Whitlock,

who will be performing a special pommel horse routine

There is no doubt the sport is having a golden moment.

I love the saying that success breeds success.

Watching other people do it, especially the people that you train

with every single day, if you can follow in their

footsteps, if you can keep up with them and repeat the same

training regime that they do, then you're going to amount

to some sort of greatness, whatever that may be.

And while the World Cup is in town, the Mayor has announced ?60,000

of funding for the sport at grassroots level, in partnership

More opportunities for world-class inspiration to lead to another

Now, it's Friday, the weather is warming up for the weekend

and the school Easter holidays are underway.

If you need a few ideas of what's on in the capital this week,

Wendy has been out and about, sampling what's on offer.

Just think way where you are. -- just expect. I am in the tree

tops Battersea Park this evening, at Go Ape. My soundtrack to editing

today has been the delighted squeals of the lucky children who have

broken up for the holidays. I have been around London today sampling

some of the fun things you can do with your time.

Aragog, King of the Spiders and Buckbeak, hiding in the trees,

are here permanently at Warner Bros in Leavesden.

Over in Lambeth, the London Fire Brigade has their pop-up museum.

And on Wednesday, there will be a workshop here with lots

of creative fire brigade activities for the kids.

We are all looking for Easter eggs in south-west London. Next to the

little tree! At Battersea Park zoo, it is and the eggs that are hidden

with the animals. They will not be much help, they prefer potatoes. Or

you can be a bunny and meet a real one. Feed one, even, although Dexter

did not like his carrot! Nor does this chap. No, my favourite thing is

hot dogs and ketchup and chips. So there! Finally, to the other end of

the park at Go Ape. Well, let's face it, after capital

offers up culture and arts at the best of times, especially when the

weather is like this. But a few more events especially for the Easter

holidays, in the south east in Forest Hill, the Easter fair, craft

stalls, traditional Easter egg hunt, and some storytelling. Up in St

Albans, Willows activity farm, the beta rabbit characters are there.

You can do users without bunnies! There is an adventure playground

that is Peter Rabbit theme. In the east at Shoreditch Gallery, there is

an exhibition where you can get face-to-face with endangered

animals. In Greenwich, this sounds intriguing, the Royal Naval College

has been restoring their painted ceiling, London's Lletget, in fact,

and it is the first time in 50 years you can get up close and have a good

look at it. You might have noticed, I am on a zip line, you might

actually remember that I like doing this so you know how I am going to

finish this report! I just want to wish you a very good weekend!

On that note, let's see how the weekend weather is shaping up

She is heading downwards and temperatures are heading upwards?

It is looking so nice this weekend will stop the weather is behaving

itself for once, just in time for the weekend and it looks like it

will be just the weekend, next week it will go downhill a little. How

did we do today? We got to around 18 Celsius, it was more like a 17 point

something, but close enough to 18. The weekend, the best way to

describe it, it is going to feel like June. The temperatures will be

pretty high. One negative aspect is that the pollen will be pretty high.

It has been high for the last few days. There is no change on that

front. But at the moment, blue skies, beautiful evening. It is

springtime, the nights are still pretty long so that the temperatures

will dip away. If you're up early in the morning, temperatures of around

four Celsius. Tomorrow morning, a beautiful morning, with light wind,

hardly a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the centre of London

probably around 20 Celsius. If you're heading to the coast, a

little bit fresher, around 17. Sunday, make the most of it, it is

going to be the best day of the weekend. If you see the Greens, that

means a chilly morning, then look at the explosion of Orange. It is

almost like Picasso! This is what we get in June. And temperatures of 23,

really a stunning day. Then I want to show you what is going to happen

by the time we get to Monday. After a beautiful day with some strong

sunshine, remember, Sunday, the winds swing in from the North. Look

at Monday, what a dip! 12, 15 Celsius. A beautiful day on the way

for Saturday and Sunday, Sunday is when we will peak with the

temperatures, around 23. Then Monday and Tuesday, I think 15 is still not

bad, but after we feel that really warm day, it is good to feel like

quite a cool off by the time we get the next week.

Especially after that explosion of colours, Picasso! How popular are

you today with a weekend forecast like that? Thanks very much.

Russia has condemned the US attack on it's ally Syria,

accusing the United States of violating international law.

President Trump authorised a missile strike on a Syrian air base,

where he says this week's deadly chemical weapons

A lorry has driven into a crowd of pedestrians in Stockholm -

killing three people and injuring many more.

The authorities believe it was a terror attack

and are still searching for the driver of the truck.

A Romanian tourist knocked into the River Thames

during the Westminster attack has died.

31-year-old Andreea Cristea had been visiting London with her boyfriend.

And a damning report into the controversial Garden Bridge

A review by Dame Margaret Hodge said decisions on the bridge were driven

more by electoral cycles than value for taxpayers' money.

We will be back later during the ten o'clock news, but for now,

from everyone on the team, have a lovely evening.