In message , at 10:39:27 on Thu, 13 Oct
2016, tim... remarked:
I note that the current argument is about the 15 million costs for
cancellation if we don't go ahead.

Who was this moron who signed contracts for (presumably)
construction before
the bridge had the go ahead?

Presumably the architects, engineers, designers, gardening experts,
surveyors, accountants, lawyers, PR agents, etc have charged their
normal fees for the work done so far.

work done so far isn't cancellation costs

Lots of costs are incurred on
prospective projects before they get the final go-ahead.

These aren't cancellations costs

The most likely reason for a "cancellation cost" is having signed up
those professionals on a contract were they were given 3-months (or
whatever) notice of the project being stopped. Rather than being told
one day that they had hundreds of redundant staff, previously working
on the project, spare at their office next Monday morning.

But how can three months of a few design consultants add up to 15
Million, when the total costs of building the wibbly wobbly bridge was
15 million - including, presumably, all of the design costs?

The number of design consultants you should have on retainer here ought
to be no more that a dozen. Especially give than 20 Million has
already been spent on "real" work.

Anybody who retained 100s ought to be standing in the dock accused of
misuse of public money.

Without some sort of orderly exit-strategy, during which to find new
projects for those staff, or even pay *them* a three month severance
amount, they wouldn't have agreed to start the work.

I understand the economics of the consultancy, thank you very much

What I don't understand is why we should have retained more than dozen
of them on a project that has yet to be signed off. It's criminally
negligent to do so.

So much that you don't understand

Start with the simple fact that the garden bridge is a much more
complex, innovative and large project than the wobbly bridge.

Costs more to design? Who'da thunk it.
--
Roland Perry