Google had been lined up for multimillion Garden Bridge donation – Financial Times

Google was planning a multimillion-pound donation to London’s ill-fated Garden Bridge project, until growing opposition from local campaigners saw funding for the bridge dry up and forced the plans to be abandoned last month.

Documents released by the London Assembly also suggested Apple was interested in sponsoring the project if it had been allowed to build a retail store on the taxpayer-backed bridge.

Google declined to give details on the precise size of any contribution, but a breakdown of donors released last year showed “confidential companies” had made two payments of £2m, as well as larger sums of £5m and £10m.

The Garden Bridge Trust, a charity, secured £60m of public money to fund the £175m initial cost of building the bridge, but planned to rely on donations from wealthy people, companies and foundations for the rest.

The trust secured a total of £69m in pledges by private donors. Leading backers included Sky, the UK satellite broadcaster, which agreed to contribute £5m in exchange for naming rights to part of the bridge. US bank Citigroup pledged to donate £2m, while commodities group Glencore promised £750,000.

The pledges never materialised because the project closed last month, following a decision by London mayor Sadiq Khan to withdraw support. The Labour mayor’s move meant £46m in public money was lost, but Mr Khan said that continuing to support the project would put taxpayers at risk of having to pay even more toward building and maintaining the bridge.

The bridge once enjoyed strong political support, but this quickly evaporated after Mr Khan replaced Conservative Boris Johnson as London mayor in May 2016 and George Osborne was ousted as chancellor when Theresa May became prime minister in July last year.

Google’s planned donation emerged in the transcript of a meeting last year between Sarah Sands, then editor of the London Evening Standard, which supported the project, and Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP who was conducting a review for Mr Khan.

According to the transcript, dated November 22 and released by the London Assembly this week, Ms Sands said changing perceptions of the bridge had deterred donors. “The trouble is that now the mood has changed, so people are thinking ‘Oh so this is a bad thing, somehow, to put my name to’,” she said.

A transcript was also released of a December meeting between Ms Hodge and actress Joanna Lumley, who championed the project. Ms Lumley was quoted as saying the “bad press we’re getting is no help at all. We should be fundraising now but we can’t fundraise while we’re being investigated”.

“People who are waiting to have their money drawn down are going: ‘Are you going to use the money? You’re a charitable organisation. Maybe if you’re not going to use it we’ll move it to somewhere else’.”

A Google spokesperson said: “We were happy to support the Garden Bridge project with a contribution, but as the project is no longer going ahead our involvement has ended too.”

In a separate meeting with Ms Hodge, Edward Lister, Mr Johnson’s former chief of staff and deputy mayor for planning, said Apple “had an interest if they could build a retail store on the bridge” or on nearby Temple station, but said “it wasn’t really a possibility”.

Sir Edward said he and Mr Johnson suggested “we call it the Apple Bridge and you pay for it, chum”, adding “that was a pretty good idea but it all came to naught”.

Apple and The Garden Bridge Trust declined to comment.