Sydney’s controversial Cloud Arch is facing the axe with backers blaming the divisive Light Rail project for killing the sculpture before it gets off the ground.

The 58-metre-high steel archway, expected to be installed in 2019, would have risen above Sydney’s Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building, at a cost of $22 million.

City of Sydney councillors will next week vote on cancelling the proposed tender, and deferring consideration on the project until after the light rail is finished.

Councillor Christine Forster tells Ben Fordham it “was always going to be over the top expensive”.

“That’s a lot of ratepayer money, hard-earned cash… which is going into what, really I consider, to be a vanity project for the Lord Mayor.

“The Lord Mayor does have a bit of egg on her face on this, and I think she’s trying to save some face by sort of backing out of it gently.”

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