The Mayor of Watford believes the local government should "take back" the millions of pounds it contributed towards ensuring the Met Line Extension went ahead.  

Dorothy Thornhill criticised Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in an open letter for “going back on commitments” made by TfL to support the project after it was rejected last month.

She is annoyed that the additional funding of £73 million raised by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was not enough for the scheme to go ahead. 

Mayor Thornhill said: “I’m absolutely devastated by Labour’s Mayor in London backing out of this scheme. It seems madness that, when every demand that TfL made was met they still can’t support what is a fully funded scheme on what is essentially five existing miles of track.

 “TfL have consistently moved the goalposts on us and have let Watford residents down in their attitude to negotiations. It’s time for TfL to rethink their short sighted position.

“If they don’t reconsider their position, it’s only right that funding partners take back the money given to TfL to make the scheme happens.” 

The letter was also signed by Hertfordshire County Council leader Cllr David Williams and chairman of the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership Mark Bretton. 

A spokesperson for Mr Khan responded that he has received the open letter.

However, TfL estimate that they would need to more than double the funding commitment they have already made to complete the extension.

The final cost would be £73.4m higher than the current funding package, with a "considerable risk" that it could rise even further. 

The spokesperson said: “This scheme is for the benefit of people living outside London, yet the previous Mayor committed £49 million of London taxpayers’ money without bothering to work out how much it would cost and agreed for TfL to take all the risk of additional costs.

“The Mayor and TfL have proposed several pragmatic solutions to this, but without a pragmatic approach from the Government, the scheme cannot progress with such a huge financial risk to London taxpayers.

"The Mayor remains open to finding alternative schemes that may be more affordable.”