London Garden Bridge visitors set to have their mobile phone signals tracked under draconian measures

Support: An artist's impression of the Garden Bridge over the Thames
Rachel Blundy6 November 2015

Visitors to the Garden Bridge being built in London are set to have their mobile phone signals tracked under draconian measures revealed in a planning document.

People also face being forced to give their names and addresses to staff and could have banned items confiscated or even destroyed under tight security measures for the £175 million project.

A sophisticated CCTV system will also be used in a bid to prevent crime and disorder on the bridge, which is being created by Olympic cauldron designer Thomas Heatherwick.

People’s progress across the bridge would be followed by monitors detecting the Wi-Fi signals from their phones which show up the device’s identifying code.

The Garden Bridge Trust insists it will only track visitors' phones to prevent over-crowding and will not store any of the data.

But Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat leader in the London assembly, told the Guardian the measure was “a worrying trend of the privatisation of public places, where the rights of private owners trump those of ordinary people”.

A spokeswoman for the Garden Bridge Trust said the proposals only represented the maximum powers which its staff could use.

She said: “We want people to use the bridge safely, and have a good experience as they cross it. We’re not setting out to restrict people or spoil their fun.”

This week the bridge was saved in an 11th-hour deal that slashed £20 million from the cost to the capital’s taxpayers this week

Talks between Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan, Lambeth council leader Lib Peck, Transport for London and the Garden Bridge Trust reached a dramatic breakthrough that will allow work to start on schedule next year.

A ComRes poll found that three-quarters of Londoners support the bridge.

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