Marble Arch Mound: Soaring costs were 'devastating and avoidable'

Westminster Council apologised for "not living up to expectations"

Top council staff ignored warnings about the cost of the Marble Arch Mound, a report has revealed.

The temporary viewing platform, commissioned by Westminster City Council, was meant to cost £2m but ended up costing three times more.

An investigation described the soaring costs of the scheme as "devastating" and "avoidable".

It comes ahead of a Westminster City Council meeting on 27 October where the report will be discussed.

The report by the council's chief executive Stuart Love said there were "clear and repeated warnings" about the project being overbudget.

Despite this, he said "overly optimistic financial updates were given to senior leaders".

Senior council officers hid details and lied about how much money the mound would make and there was a basic lack of project management, the report found.

It also stated there was a lack of transparency on how the project was being funded with decisions often being made informally without proper documentation.

This meant the council's cabinet members and other senior officers were unaware of how the scheme was progressing, the Local Democracy Reporting Service found.

An artist's impression of how the Marble Arch mound was supposed to look

The Tory-led council paid Dutch architects MVRDV to build the mound in a bid to attract more visitors to the West End.

The pop-up attraction opened in July and will close in January.