That garden bridge will cost £175 million (and rising) of which £60 million comes from the public purse. Originally it was going to cost less with nil from the public purse, but costs rise inexorably. This is the brainchild of that Joanna Lumley whose bounce on a bus recently urged he to buy a Remembrance Day poppy. She seems very keen on spending other people's monry. Why a garden bridge, that needs security guards, that isn't cyclist-friendly, that will surely have compacted soil so killing such trees as are on it? Is there really public demand for a bridge with trees growing on it? Which views will it block? Meanwhile, in the real world , councillors are struggling to cope with dramatic cuts in their revenues. I don't know the exact position in Ealing, but imagine it's not so different as in Brent where I now live. This year our revenue fell by £20million. Over the years since 2010 we've lost one-fifth of our income and we shall lose a further fifth by 2019. If you add people what services they want protected, hands shoot up. If you ask which services they want the acouncil to stop doing, there's an uneasy shuffling. Sure you could get councillors to give up all their councillors and only wealthy people could be councillors. But whether it's £65,000 or double that, thus will not close the gap. Unlike central government, councils cannot just print money. Not for us increasing the UK National Debt by nearly half in just four years and calling it "paying down the deficit" - a meaningless phrase as until there is no deficit you are not paying down anything, simply increasing thr UK National Debt .
Daniel Antony Filson ● 4302d