英國上議院（House of Lords）認為，Thomas Heatherwick 設計的花園橋是一件昂貴的面子工程，在議會的辯論中，質疑是否有必要再設置另外一道渡河的橋樑，並指稱它是倫敦市長 Boris Johnson 的寵物計劃。
出處
Lords call Heatherwick bridge plan 'expensive vanity project'
10 January 2014 | By Elizabeth Hopkirk
Thomas Heatherwick’s garden bridge was dismissed as an expensive vanity project in the House of Lords during a debate yesterday.
Peers questioned the need for another river crossing and suggested it was a pet scheme of London mayor Boris Johnson.
If a new bridge was necessary, they said, it should be “simple” like Foster & Partners’ Millennium Bridge.
Lord Davies of Oldham, a Labour peer, said: “It is a very expensive piece of public art, a vanity project of the mayor – and we know where his vanity projects have gone and what they have cost the country.
“The cycle hire scheme is in trouble, his Emirates gondola crossing down at Greenwich carries so few passengers that it is risible and, of course, the taxpayer will have to pick up the bill.”
Lord Lloyd of Berwick described it as a waste of money and added: “Why try to plant trees on a bridge, where they will be exposed to all the elements, will be a hazard to river craft once they are fully grown and will, in my view at any rate, look completely ridiculous?”
Lord Deighton, commercial secretary to the Treasury, defended the department’s £30 million grant for the project. He listed its benefits to London and the UK, saying: “First, there is the pedestrian connectivity that it will give. It will switch people out of cars and on to their feet and make a very important connection.
“Secondly, it will increase London visitor numbers, which is very important. It will be a great visitor attraction.
“Thirdly, it will have significant development value, connecting the South Bank and its creative centre to the Aldwych and Covent Garden. The development it will bring on each side will have significant value. Finally, it will be a great showcase for UK expertise.
“Our brilliant designer, Thomas Heatherwick, is designing it, Arup is engineering it and Dan Pearson is landscaping the garden, so it will generate other future business for London through that showcase.”
But he insisted the government would only hand over cash once it had received a business case demonstrating value for money for the taxpayer.
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall invoked the spirit of George Bernard Shaw who said “on the whole the British never want anything? They particularly did not want, for example, the National Theatre. They got it and are now very proud of it. The same thing is true of the London Eye. Does [the minister] not agree that the same thing, in time, may be true of the garden bridge?”
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