Council officers spent months debating what type of grass to put on Marble Arch Mound

By Jacob Phillips, local democracy reporter

Council officers spent months debating what type of grass to put on the Marble Arch Mound, a council meeting heard on Wednesday night.

And after they had constantly trying to decide between sedum plants or grass to carpet the 25 metre structure, plants still began to drop off the mound on its opening day.

Council workers were seen trying to add extra plants late at night to try and get the tourist attraction ready for visitors when the mound opened on July 26.

Senior council officers were repeatedly warned the £6 million viewing platform would be more expensive than planned but overlooked expert advice, an internal investigation previously found.

A three-hour scrutiny committee meeting on October 27 revealed no one warned senior officers that the mound had been rushed and was well over budget.

The meeting’s chair, councillor Karen Scarborough said: “There were clearly no checks or balances during the project.

“There was a lot of trust in colleagues to think that they were doing their job when they clearly were not.

“Nobody seemed to check at the opening whether it was ready.

“It’s just extraordinary. It was clearly mismanaged from beginning to end.”

Councillors from across the political spectrum questioned how project managers spent three times what they were supposed to on the project, and opposition councillors even asked for the mound to be immediately demolished.

Council leader Rachel Robathan was notably absent and she has not commented on the misspending since labelling the mound a “cult classic” last month.

Mrs Robathan, Westminster chief executive Stuart Love, and chief housing officer Debbie Jackson did not visit the mound in the last month of construction.

The council leader was even filmed standing on top of the mound while building works had not been completed on June 23 and praised its beauty and views.

When asked by councillors why the politicians had not noticed the mound was still a building site Debbie Jackson explained it was common for projects like this to not be ready until opening day.

She said: “I do regret not being more personally involved. It was a challenging project being delivered at pace and I was given the reassurance that everything was going to be fine.

“I didn’t go and visit in the week prior. I was there on June 21. There were another four or five weeks until the opening day.

“It was quite difficult to judge on the 21st whether it was going to be ready. I was in touch with the programme director and he said he was on site and that it looked impressive.”

Former-deputy leader Melvyn Caplan resigned after the project’s catastrophic overspend was revealed.

The mound then began attracting visitors for the wrong reasons, with many saying they had travelled to see how bad the structure looked as its terrible reputation spread across the world.

The structure is set to remain in place until February 2022, but concerns have been raised about the remainder of Oxford Street’s regeneration, as it is managed by the project manager in charge of the mound.

The £150million redevelopment of Oxford Street has been put on hold and plans to pedestrianise part of the road have been scrapped.