Wandsworth Council shot down a chance to reopen Hammersmith Bridge because it would have meant putting money in, new documents reveal. The bridge has been closed for seven years.
The Department for Transport’s own notes of a ministerial meeting in January 2025 show that when the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham offered to open talks about sharing the repair costs, Wandsworth’s representative refused on the spot, saying the council had “no money.”
The council has since approved plans to borrow £870 million for housing, including a single £65 million land purchase at Battersea Power Station. Its reserves at the time were just under £200m.
Three days earlier, council leader Simon Hogg, transport cabinet member Jenny Yates and Putney MP Fleur Anderson had stood together at a public rally in Putney demanding urgent action on the bridge. The council has never told residents what it said in the room three days later.
Putney.news obtained the notes [pdf] after the DfT twice refused to release them. They reveal what happened when the Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce met on 30 January 2025.
According to the notes, Hammersmith and Fulham leader Cllr Stephen Cowan made the offer directly. The Taskforce had met 20 times since 2020 without resolving how to pay for repairs. This was its first meeting in four years, and Wandsworth was at the table for the first time.
A breakthrough opportunity
Cowan’s offer to discuss sharing the cost was the closest anyone had come to breaking the deadlock. According to the notes, Wandsworth’s cabinet member did not ask for time to consider the offer or suggest taking it back to the council. The response, as recorded by DfT officials, was two words: “no money.”
The representative then disputed Hammersmith and Fulham’s traffic figures, claiming traffic had increased. DfT data obtained by Putney.news shows the opposite. The Taskforce has not met since.
The DfT notes do not name the Wandsworth attendee, referring only to a “cabinet member.” The Cabinet Member for Transport at the time was Cllr Jenny Yates, who is also Roehampton’s ward councillor. We wrote to Cllr Yates directly, and to the council’s press office, over a week ago asking them for their version of events. Neither has responded.
Remarkably, before refusing to contribute, Wandsworth’s representative had told the meeting what the closure was doing to Roehampton – Cllr Yates’ own ward – no train option, bus services dramatically cut, a deprived community. She described the problem, then refused to help pay for the solution.
At the rally, Hogg had called for “urgent and decisive action to fund and deliver the repairs.” After the Taskforce meeting, the council published nothing and no statement was issued.
A year of silence
The notes record that a follow-up was planned for March 2025, once engineering surveys came back. That survey work was due in February or March of that year. The follow-up never happened. It is now March 2026.
According to the DfT officials’ notes, those at the meeting treated the Spending Review as their last chance to secure funding. One warning recorded in the notes said that without it, the bridge would be “outside of the decision making process for a few more years.” The Spending Review passed on 11 June 2025 with no commitment to Hammersmith Bridge.
The DfT’s own background briefing confirms the government’s previous funding pledge had already lapsed. “This funding arrangement expired in April 2024,” the document states, referring to the government’s one-third contribution towards repair costs. No replacement has been announced. A new national fund for structural repairs was subsequently created, but its eligibility rules have not been published.
The money Wandsworth does have
The £870 million housing borrowing breaks down as £200 million for repairs to existing stock and £670 million for new housing, according to the council’s own financial papers from December 2025. The £81.8 million Battersea Power Station deal was approved by the same cabinet in the same month.
The council held £193.9 million in cash reserves as of April 2025. Its transport committee generates a net surplus of £2.5 million a year from parking charges. Neither the transport budget nor the growth strategy document mentions Hammersmith Bridge.
Hammersmith and Fulham has spent roughly £48 million on the bridge since 2020. The Department for Transport has contributed about £12.3 million.
What Wandsworth was asked
We put five questions to Cllr Yates: whether she attended the meeting, whether the “no money” response was hers, how she reconciled raising Roehampton’s problems while refusing to contribute, why the council’s position was never disclosed to residents, and whether Wandsworth had pressed for the Taskforce to reconvene.
The request was sent on 20 March – over a week ago. No response has been received.
What happens next
The bridge remains closed. The Taskforce has no date for its next meeting. The national repair fund’s criteria have not been published. Nobody from Wandsworth Council has explained what happened in that room.
Putney.news has challenged the DfT’s decision to continue withholding parts of the documents, including the estimated cost of individual repair options. That challenge is pending.
We obtained these documents [Annex A | Annex B] under the Freedom of Information Act after the DfT twice refused to release them.
The bridge closed in April 2019. It once carried 22,000 vehicles a day. Wandsworth was offered a chance to help bring them back. It said no.
Accountability Statement
We contacted: Cabinet member for Transport Jenny Yates, and cc’ed Wandsworth Council.
Request sent: 20 March 2026
Cllr Jenny Yates
Cabinet member for Transport
Status: No response received.
Questions asked (click to expand)
1. Did you attend the 30 January 2025 Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce meeting as Wandsworth Council’s representative? If you did not attend, please tell us who did.
2. The DfT officials’ notes record that when Hammersmith and Fulham Council leader Cllr Stephen Cowan offered to open a conversation about a financial contribution from Wandsworth towards bridge restoration costs, Wandsworth’s representative responded that the council had no money to contribute. Was this your response? If so, can you explain Wandsworth’s position, given that the council held approximately £194 million in general fund reserves at the time and has since approved plans to borrow up to £870 million for housing over the next decade, including £65 million for a single land purchase at Battersea Power Station?
3. The DfT officials’ notes record that Wandsworth’s representative raised the impact on Roehampton at the same meeting — noting there is no train option, that bus routes had been dramatically cut, and that the community is deprived. You represent Roehampton as its ward councillor. Can you explain how you reconcile identifying those concerns at the meeting while declining to contribute financially towards a solution?
4. Three days before the Taskforce meeting, Wandsworth Council held a public meeting in Putney at which Council Leader Simon Hogg called for “urgent and decisive action to fund and deliver the repairs.” Following the Taskforce meeting on 30 January, Wandsworth published no public statement about what was discussed or about the council’s position on contributing financially. Why was this not disclosed to residents?
5. The DfT officials’ notes record that the next Taskforce meeting was planned for March 2025, following geotechnical work due back in February/March of that year. It is now March 2026 and the Taskforce has not met. Has Wandsworth Council taken any steps in the past year to request or press for the Taskforce to reconvene?
