Lessons From The Garden Bridge Trust – The Charity Commission's Final Report

The Charity Commission has published its final report in relation to the Garden Bridge Trust, which cancelled plans to deliver the publicly funded “Garden Bridge” in August 2017 and is now in the process of being wound up. The report is the second published by the Commission, an initial case report having been released in February 2017. Both reports run alongside the review by Rt Hon Dame Margaret Hodge MP released in April 2017 and the investigation by the National Audit Office conducted in 2016.

The Garden Bridge Trust

The Garden Bridge Trust was established as a charitable company in 2013 in order to deliver Transport for London's high profile “Garden Bridge” project. Public funding for the bridge consisted of £60m in contributions to the charity from the Department of Transport and TfL (£20m of which was a loan repayable to TfL). The charity also received non-public funds from grant-making charities, corporations and individuals. The charity intended to use the funds to construct the bridge and oversee its maintenance once the bridge was built.

In December 2014 the Garden Bridge Trust was granted conditional planning permission to build the bridge from Westminster and Lambeth Councils (being the councils on the north and south side of the bridge's intended location on the River Thames). One of the conditions of the planning permission was that the charity obtain Mayoral guarantees to underwrite the maintenance of the bridge, should the charity fail. The charity received approval for the guarantees in June 2015.

In May 2015, the Garden Bridge Trust announced that it had selected a joint venture between Bouygues Travaux Publics and Cimolai as the main contractor to construct the bridge. A construction contract was signed between the charity and the joint venture in March 2016.

However, after a change of administration and in response to Dame Margaret Hodge MP's review, the Mayor of London announced in April 2017 that he would not provide the guarantees. Without the guarantees, the charity was not able to fulfil the requirements of the planning permission and the project was effectively ended.

The Commission's Report

The Commission's final report concludes that the trustees of the Garden Bridge Trust complied with their duties as trustees under charity law. The Commission does not criticise the decision of the trustees to enter into the construction contract and emphasises that the Commission's role is not to determine whether a decision...