14/08/2017 London News

It was as controversial as it was spectacular.

Today the Garden Bridge Project was officially scrapped -

leaving taxpayers with a bill of up to ?46 million.

Both the former Mayor, Boris Johnson, and the ex-Chancellor,

George Osborne, committed large amounts of public money to it.

But the project lost the current Mayor's support after a scathing

Our transport correspondent Tom Edwards has the story.

The Garden Bridge is dead, leaving behind questions

about the amount of taxpayers' money that's been wasted and

The Garden Bridge trusts are to blame for the money being spent.

They were responsible for that money.

They spent it without letting us know what it was for.

There have also been costs which still haven't

They've kept everything behind closed doors.

They haven't been transparent as they promised, and it's their own

One of the issues with the Garden Bridge was that it was never really

a transport project, it was more a tourist attraction,

and campaigners said it was in completely

So far, ?37.4 million of taxpayers' money has been

That could increase to ?46.4 million.

There are bound to be further questions and further scrutiny

Those funds were signed off by the previous mayor,

Boris Johnson, and the then Chancellor, George Osborne.

But even early on, it never had political consensus.

This whole thing is a load of cobblers.

You just cannot bear the idea that a great project is going ahead.

The former mayor has said Sadiq Khan should have made the project work,

and today the Garden Bridge Trust also blamed the current mayor

He changed his mind after a scathing review.

His opponents accuse him of dithering.

He had all the information he needed to take a decision in May last year.

But he didn't have the courage or the conviction

And in that time, we've spent ?9 million worth

So my question is, how do we get him to make

He said he was always clear that no more money should be

spent on the project, and he could not leave Londoners

Others say the Garden Bridge was always a vanity project.

There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered.

?50 million of taxpayers' money has been spent,

with nothing to show for it apart from some glossy press releases

and a furious local community in the Waterloo area.

We also have to look at where the blame lies for this project.

The lion's share of the blame has to go to Boris Johnson.

But now, of course, he has departed City Hall.

The Garden Bridge has been abandoned, but the fallout from this

embarrassing infrastructure failure is far from over.

Armed officers in The Met are to be issued with head-mounted cameras

in an attempt to address concerns about the transparency

They'll be attached to the caps and protective helmets of members

Glock pistol, MP5 automatic rifle and now the Axon Flex camera.

The message - with power comes responsibility.

At the unveiling today, officers overwhelmingly welcomed it.

I think it's a superb development to have an independent

It's something I wish I have had in many situations

There's the evidential benefits, so in court

or during an investigation, there can be no doubt

on where you were standing or what an individual said.

Already, 17,500 bodyworn cameras have been issued to police across

Now it's the turn of uniformed or overt firearms officers.

They'll be issued with cameras in the next few weeks.

This has not been without its problems, though.

There were concerns that the view from a camera worn on the body

The solution is to mount the camera on the head.

The Met's footage shows it works when

But now you decide how clear the view is when a two-handed rifle

It's not just the actual shooting, that's just the end, really.

We are keen to capture the build-up to that point.

Conversations that take place, threats that people face.

That is what we're keen to capture, to demonstrate why an officer

ultimately took a decision to pull the trigger.

It's also hoped that if lots of officers wear cameras,

it it won't matter if an individual fails to turn theirs on.

Now look at this - the moment Azelle Rodney was shot dead

by a plainclothes officer who was later exonerated.

Covert officers will not have to wear these cameras yet.

The Met says that's simply because to do

Whether an operation is overt or covert, we want to show

the public what officers were faced with and the action they took.

At the moment, we're not there with the covert solution,

but we're working hard in the background.

That's why the Met are investing so heavily in body-worn cameras,

describing this as the largest roll-out of its kind by any

Around 20,000 vulnerable children in London have potentially

dangerous home lives, but are not receiving the help

they need because they're not deemed to be at "crisis point".

That's the warning from a charity which says the youngsters are stuck

in what it calls a "revolving door" of children's services.

Here's our Education Reporter Marc Ashdown.

It was the case which prompted the largest review of child

Victoria Climbie, an eight-year-old murdered by those

Early warnings of the abuse she suffered were repeatedly

17 years on, it's feared thousands of vulnerable children

are still being left in potentially dangerous situations.

Debbie started working in children's services just after this case.

She helps families with everything from behavioural problems

But she says it's becoming harder to provide the support needed.

Across the sites I run, I've got just under 2,500 under fives.

So as much as we do, there is a lot that we can't possibly

do because we can't be everywhere at once.

So, you know, we are already aware of families we're not picking up.

The charity Action for Children asked local authorities

about the number of children referred to them after concerns

It found about 180,000 in England were not deemed

to be at crisis point, so didn't meet

In London, about 23,000 children were referred,

but after an assessment it was deemed no further

There are still soft services available, like children's centres

Across the capital, nearly 20,000 children

So, just one in five of those originally referred

We know from too many cases that if we're not able

to help children early, there are strong likelihoods

For example, in Serious Case Reviews, 70% of the time,

we know there have been early warning signs.

But we also know if we give children and families the tools to help

themselves much earlier, they are much more likely to not

Differing thresholds from council to council were highlighted.

Depending on a situation, help might be provided in one area,

but in a neighbouring borough might be deemed unnecessary.

We have been hit by a double whammy of major government cuts

and massive funding pressures facing local government

The Department for Education says they are taking action by reforming

social care services and better protecting victims of domestic

It says councils spent almost ?8 billion last year

on children's social care, but it wants to help them do more.

I'll say good night now and leave you with Wendy,

who'll hopefully tell us it'll feel like summer tomorrow?

If you liked it today, it was nice and warm. But we might have peaked,

because while it is warm this week, it will start cooling off and then

turn a bit windy later this week. At the moment, we have a bit of cloud

around. We finished the day with a few showers in some spots, mostly

north of London. Tonight, the showers will be in the south-east.

Kent and Essex might even hear a rumble of thunder. North-west of

there, you should get away with a mild night. Tomorrow starts with dry

and sunny weather, breaking the Bali because of the few showers that

could bubble up in the afternoon. -- bring your brolly. The skies stay

clear overnight into Wednesday, so it will be quite chilly first thing

on Wednesday morning, with some sunshine to begin with, but we will

see that turning more Haiti as the day goes on. -- it will be turning

more hazy. London will get a 23 degrees, which is where it should be

for this time of year. It will be windy on Friday. We will not get the

worst of the rain that will be coming in from those low pressure

systems. There could be a few showers about. You might dodge those

on Thursday amongst the sunny spells. Still fairly warm, but then

it will cool off at the end of the week and become very breezy. The

outlook for the weekend is cool, but it will become less breezy and there

will be sunny