This evening, Hammersmith and Fulham Council will approve a draft Local Plan that includes an £811 million tunnel to replace the functioning Hammersmith Flyover – while Hammersmith Bridge remains closed to vehicles after more than six years, with no funding and no end in sight.
For residents south of the river, it’s a hard pill to swallow. Simple cross-river commutes now involve lengthy detours via Putney or Chiswick bridges. The same council that cannot secure funding to reopen a closed bridge wants to spend nearly a billion pounds replacing infrastructure that works.
Even councillors are questioning the priorities. At July’s Cabinet meeting, Conservative Councillor Jose Afonso asked the obvious question: will the tunnel be built before Hammersmith Bridge reopens – or are we talking about 2050?
Council Leader Stephen Cowan didn’t answer directly. Instead, he blamed the bridge closure on Conservatives playing politics. As for the tunnel, he said it would pay for itself by selling the land once the flyover comes down. But he admitted they need a Labour government willing to get involved. His pitch to ministers was vague: “We’ll give you the plan, and if you can help, we’d like to do this.”
The proposal would see the 1960s flyover demolished and replaced with a tunnel, part of plans to build 2,800 homes and create 10,000 jobs in Hammersmith by 2035. The flyover was built for £1.2 million in 1961 and repaired for £60 million in 2011-2012, extending its life by 15 years. It carries 90,000 vehicles daily without crisis.
The problem: Transport for London says it has “no plans” to replace the flyover and “no funding allocated” in its current Business Plan. TfL – whose asset this is – isn’t interested, has no money, and hasn’t committed a penny. The final bill could easily top £1 billion.
The Bridge: Six years and counting
The contrast is stark. The 138-year-old Grade II* listed Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor vehicles since April 2019 due to cracks in its cast iron pedestals. It was fully closed to everyone between August 2020 and July 2021, only reopening to pedestrians and cyclists in April 2025.
The repair costs:
- 2019: £40 million
- 2021: £141 million
- 2024: £250 million
Costs were supposed to be split three ways between the council, TfL, and the Department for Transport. But as of December 2024, the DfT had contributed only £8.3 million and TfL just £2.9 million, while the council has spent almost £48 million. The business case submitted in December 2022 has sat without approval for over two years.
Local MP Fleur Anderson has warned the bridge could stay closed to vehicles until 2035.
Wandsworth Council Leader Simon Hogg has flagged the size of the problem for Putney and Roehampton: “Since the closure over five years ago, traffic has got increasingly worse on local roads, resulting in regular gridlock and longer journey times for people commuting to work, school, and vital appointments. Businesses are struggling, emergency vehicles are delayed, buses are delayed.”
Anderson’s question to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander last month was her first mention of Hammersmith Bridge in Parliament in nearly two years.
Between 2019 and 2024, journey times between affected postcodes surged by over 20 minutes, adding five extra miles to routes. Bus journeys that took 9 minutes now average over 40 minutes. The situation has got worse since the Putney Bridge junction redesign. Traffic on Putney Bridge increased 16% between 2020 and 2023, from 32,083 to 37,239 vehicles. Hammersmith Bridge used to take 25,000 vehicles a day.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council argues it’s doing what it can. It has spent £48 million on bridge stabilisation since 2020, often advancing funds without government approval, hoping to be reimbursed for two-thirds. Council Leader Cowan says the £250 million repair cost is “unaffordable” for any council, especially after government cut the council’s annual budget from £184 million to £124 million since 2010. The council faces a projected budget gap of £43.9 million by 2028/29.
The real scandal: Labour’s silence
The council can’t solve this alone. It applied to government for bridge funding three times in 2019-2020. All three bids were rejected.
Yet there’s been deafening silence from those who should be shouting loudest: Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick. Ben Coleman, Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham. And Fleur Anderson, Labour MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.
All Labour. All representing constituencies directly affected. All suspiciously quiet now Labour is in government. Where are the parliamentary questions? The media campaigns? The threats to rebel unless funding is released?
Anderson’s claims vs reality
At a resident meeting this weekend, Putney MP Anderson painted a picture of progress. She said the current repair plan, “coming in far too expensive at 240 million pounds,” is being reworked. “I’ve asked the Department of Transport to go away and look at that plan again, especially with Heritage England who were setting too high standards, to relook at that plan, make it more affordable, and they’ve done that.”
On funding, she claimed success: “There had to be a pot of money to fund that plan, and that was done in the comprehensive spending review, and there is an infrastructure fund which that can be applied to, to restore Hammersmith Bridge.”
She told residents: “I raise it wherever and whenever I can. I have a picture of Hammersmith Bridge on my door so that anyone any MP that passes by and I’m quite close to a junior minister for transport can see. I honestly ask this everywhere.”
The Hansard record tells a different story. Between 2020 and 2022, when Conservatives were in power, Anderson was persistent – raising the bridge through debates, petitions, and questions. In 2023, she raised it once, in November. Then complete silence throughout 2024 – the entire general election year.
Her question to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander last month was her first mention of Hammersmith Bridge in Parliament in nearly two years. For an MP who claims to “raise it wherever and whenever I can,” that’s a remarkable gap covering the crucial period when Labour was preparing for and then forming government.
Still no progress
The Transport Secretary’s response was predictably vague: “We announced in the spending review a structures fund, to assist local authorities with repairs to bridges and tunnels that are beyond their financial capacity to fund. We will set out the criteria for access to that fund in due course.”
That fund was announced back in June 2024. “In due course” is the same evasive language that has characterised this saga for six years.
At the weekend meeting, Anderson said: “I will not rest, absolutely. It’s all taking too long, it’s so frustrating, but I am doing absolutely all I can.”
The pattern is clear: vocal opposition when Conservatives were in power, near-total silence when Labour might be held accountable. The bridge has been closed for six years, six months, and three days. For nearly two of those years, Putney’s MP didn’t mention it once in Parliament.
The Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce reconvened in January 2025 after three years of inactivity. Six options were discussed, including destroying the bridge or building a replacement. Without a funding commitment, it’s just more talking.
Every morning, thousands of residents face the same reality: the bridge is shut, nobody will pay to fix it, and their MPs have stopped asking why.
The Hammersmith Flyunder plan that will almost certainly be approved tonight might be tone-deaf. But at least the council is being honest about its funding source: wishful thinking. That’s more transparency than we’re getting from Westminster about who’s actually going to pay for the bridge that matters.
