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Wavy-gravy station
• AT the council’s south area planning committee last week, residents and businesses rightly condemned the painfully mediocre, “out-of-town supermarket” design of the new Farringdon Station entrance as being completely inappropriate for its setting.
As I commented the first time this application came to committee, the “wavy-gravy” design completely fails to respect or respond to the dignified, controlled geometry of the original train sheds.
The people who objected this time are not nimbys. They came up with a positive alternative design, architecturally much more sensitive, and demonstrated how the new entrance could be designed to respect and respond to its setting.
The council showed no interest whatsoever in this attempt by local people to make a positive contribution. Instead, Lib Dem committee chairman Councillor George Allan tried to belittle the objectors by suggesting their only concern was to preserve an “old wall” which would be affected by the new entrance.
Cllr Allan concluded by dismissing all objections to the dreadful design as being merely a matter of “taste”, and claiming that planning is “not a matter of taste”.
What was being disputed was not “a matter of taste” but a question of design quality, which government guidance requires to be central to the consideration of all planning applications.
This application was yet another demonstration of Cllr Allan’s determination to avoid any discussion of design, preferring instead to treat the committee as a purely administrative activity. Only my colleague, Councillor Gary Doolan, stood up for residents, and their intelligent concern for the future appearance of their neighbourhood.
CLLR MARTIN KLUTE
Labour, St Peters ward
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