Funding pulled for east London pedestrian and cycling bridge
Newham Council have decided to withdraw funding from an east London bridge and reallocate funding elsewhere.
In 2022 the authority was awarded £40 million in levelling-up funding covering a number of projects, with Lochnagar Bridge being one.
A planning application was submitted last autumn and covered on this site at the time.
With a spending deadline of March 2025, the authority will “transfer of £1.45m LUF grant funding from the Lochnagar Bridge project to Canning Town Old Library and £234k to the Will Thorne Pavilion project”.
Newham Council state the bridge isn’t dead – which is just as well as thousands of homes will depend on it – and that:
We remain committed to delivering the Lochnagar Bridge project as part of our wider vision for the future of the Bidder Street industrial area and Canning Town more widely.
Officers will continue to work on alternative options to fund the short fall that this proposed reallocation of grant creates.
The report later adds further funding will be required and that “alternative funding options are being looked at while the Lochnagar bridge design is finalised.” However, “the project will remain on hold if an alternative funding has not been secured after June 2024”.
They state potential funding sources will be brought before future cabinet meetings. Levelling-up funding was never due to foot all the cost, with additional funds for the bridge coming from Community Infrastructure Levy revenue from new developments.
New housing is a key reason for additional bridges over the River Lea, which would link to both Star Lane DLR station as well as Canning Town for the DLR and Jubilee line.
The council’s report states that the project has seen delays:
These delays predominately relate to prolonged negotiations over land and air rights.
These issues mean that the bridge will not be delivered, in the best case scenario, before the summer of 2026, putting the completion date beyond the March 2025 DLUHC deadline for the spending of the LUF grant.
Newham Council agreed to the reallocation at a Cabinet meeting earlier this month.
