Councillors called for Mayor of London to “rethink” his decision to halt the Metropolitan Line Extension at a meeting.

Liberal Democrat councillors passed a motion which slammed Sadiq Khan for “letting down” residents at a Watford Borough Council meeting on Tuesday.

Cllr Iain Sharpe, who is responsible for Regeneration and Development, proposed the motion as he believes Mr Khan do not want the scheme to go ahead despite already being funded and preparatory works completed.

He said: “Sadiq Khan has let down residents in Watford with his short-sighted decision to withdraw his support from this scheme. We were in a position where the funding for the scheme was in place until the bombshell hit.

“TfL wanted all the financial burden of the risk of the scheme to fall on government and for TfL not to foot any of it. It’s a normal occurrence for the organisation planning this scheme. It seems like TfL and Sadiq Khan simply doesn’t want to deliver it.

“Sadiq Khan is currently saying he won’t support the extension as it mainly benefits taxpayers outside of Watford. Yet he is happy to put substantial funds into rail links going out of London as far as Reading and in Essex. This is a loss for Watford and London residents alike.”

Watford Labour councillors voted against the motion during the meeting and put forward their own which suggested there should be “all party support” to get the Met Line extension back on track instead.

Cllrs Asif Khan and Nigel Bell said TfL should negotiate with Mr Khan to work out a “positive outcome” for the extensio.

Cllr Khan said: “This is a genuine attempt to bring all parties to the negotiating table.

“The Tory-run Department for Transport must take on the risk related to the building of the Met Line extension and work with the Mayor of London to deal with this impasse.

“Watford Liberal Democrats have resorted to playing petty party politics, and seem to have given up any genuine attempt at brokering a deal."

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London has since responded: “It was the previous Mayor who committed £49m of London taxpayers’ money to the Metropolitan Line Extension without ever bothering to work out how much it would actually cost.

"A detailed review has shown that TfL would need to more than double its funding commitment to complete this scheme, as well as taking all the risk of additional costs. The Mayor simply cannot put such a huge financial risk to London taxpayers on a project that would benefit people living outside of the capital.

"The Mayor and TfL have proposed several pragmatic solutions, but without a pragmatic approach from the Government, it cannot progress. The Mayor remains open to finding alternative schemes that may be more affordable."