The Marble Arch Mound

• WESTMINSTER City Council has finally confirmed that the cost of pulling down the Marble Arch Mound is £660,000.

The £660,000 cost of demolition is included in the £6million cost of building and managing the visitors to the mound.

Let’s hope the demolition costs do not escalate over the next few weeks and add to the bill for this monumental folly.

The £6million mound has proved a disaster from start to finish and has hit the council’s finances hard.

As a result of the city council’s financial incompetence:

— Council rents are going up £5 a week.

— Parking charges are going up.

— Adult social services are being cut by £500,000.

— Mayfair library is under threat of closure to save £200,000 a year in rent.

The Conservatives claim the mound was built to attract shoppers back to Oxford Street.

But fewer than 1,400 people a day, on average, visited the mound even though it was free for the six months it was open.

The business generated by just 1,400 people did nothing to revive Oxford Street’s shops.

Indeed before the pandemic Oxford Street was attracting about 600,000 visitors a day.

Boris Johnson’s Westminster Conservatives are completely out of touch with what residents want.

Wasting £6million of public money should disqualify the Conservatives from running the council for a moment longer.

On May 5 Westminster residents will have their opportunity for change when they will be able to vote for a Labour council which puts residents first and ends the Conservative financial waste.

PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
JUDITH SOUTHERN
& MD SHAMSED CHOWDHURY
Labour Candidates for Hyde Park ward