Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:53:59 on Wed, 12 Oct
2016, tim... remarked:

I note that the current argument is about the 15 million costs for
cancellation if we don't go ahead.

Who was this moron who signed contracts for (presumably) construction
before
the bridge had the go ahead?

Presumably the architects, engineers, designers, gardening experts,
surveyors, accountants, lawyers, PR agents, etc have charged their
normal fees for the work done so far.

work done so far isn't cancellation costs

Lots of costs are incurred on
prospective projects before they get the final go-ahead.

These aren't cancellations costs

The most likely reason for a "cancellation cost" is having signed up
those professionals on a contract were they were given 3-months (or
whatever) notice of the project being stopped. Rather than being told
one day that they had hundreds of redundant staff, previously working on
the project, spare at their office next Monday morning.

Without some sort of orderly exit-strategy, during which to find new
projects for those staff, or even pay *them* a three month severance
amount, they wouldn't have agreed to start the work.

Yes, they'd all be on retainers. Plus some services would be billed in
retrospect, and so the bills for those would be payable when the project's
cancelled.